The hurrier I go, the behinder I get

Things happen.

It’s a fact. We can’t avoid it. And try as we might it still wrecks havoc on our lives.

April 15th my mom fell and broke her leg. At the time I was working, doing school, managing my non-profit, writing my novels, writing blog posts, and getting ready to start volunteering at a summer camp. Needless to say, that threw a wrench in my plans. School screeched to a halt, my non-profit took a few weeks off, and writing was non-existent. My days were filled with figuring out how on earth to manage the household my mom has built. I learned how to cook and how to clean, and I learned that I have absolutely no idea how to balance work, school, volunteering, writing, and running a household. As the year progressed I struggled working two days a week, doing school, and volunteering the other three days. I would get mom breakfast and ready for the day before I left at 7:30am, and I would hopefully be home by 11:00pm. On the days I worked I left the house at 7:20am and arrived home at 10:45. I would spend the rest of the day making lunches and dinners for the days I wasn't home.

In essence, this post is an explanation for my absence, as well as advice from someone who's been where many of you are right now.

Life happens, but that doesn't mean that your dreams have to fall by the wayside.

"The hurrier I go the behinder I get" is a quote from the white rabbit in Lewis Carrol's: Alice and Wonderland. This quote, however strange it may seem, is very pertinent to life.

Often times the more we try to do, the less we are actually able to get done. Basically, we don't know our own boundaries.

Think of our lives as the Parthenon. Our lives revolve around the pillars of interest we place, and when a person or situation fires a cannon at our beautiful Parthenon at least a few pillars are going to come crashing down. And honestly, that's ok. Sometimes the pillars that we place the most stock in are actually standing in our way.

I'll use myself as an example. I was hired as a swim instructor several months ago with the understanding that I couldn't start work until September. However, like most things in life, my summer didn't go as planned. By the time I was supposed to start work I was booked to fly to Winnemucca Nevada for a Memorial service and was facing 36 hours of homework per week.

That doesn't sound awful...Right?

It would have been fine if those were the only things I was doing. However, I was also working another job, running a non-profit, a cadet at the local fire station, writing, volunteering at church, cooking family meals, cleaning the house, and attempting to have some sort of social life. On top of all that I live outside of town, and it takes me 15 minutes to get to work, and a half an hour to an hour to get anywhere else. I had to take something off my plate. Ergo, I resigned as a swim instructor. My parents and I had gone over everything, and we found that the only way I would be able to work that job was running non-stop from 6am to 9pm, 7 days a week. While that may work for some of you, my brain doesn't function under that constant amount of stress.

One very interesting thing I found over the summer is that like I said earlier, the more you try to do, the less you get done.

Now by no means is this, or should it ever be, an excuse not to try something new. It is, however, a warning against trying to do too much.

I mentioned earlier in this post that your dreams don't have to fall to the wayside just because your life gets busy. Even though I didn't write all summer God has begun to convict me on the outline for Scepter of Blood, or lack thereof, and therefore I am working on a chapter by chapter outline of the nearly 70 chapter novel. Now, if it was completely up to me, it is very likely that I wouldn't finish said outline. And then, unfortunately, I would end up with an abundance of continuity errors. Yet even though the pain of outlining such a large novel is overwhelming, God is keeping my dream alive.

Don't give up on your dreams simply because you don’t believe you have time.

Vira's hypocritical outline advice

I am going to be completely honest with you, I hate outlining. I've always been awful at it and tend to see it as confining, unfortunately I am also a hypocrite and so highly recommend it for anyone who is struggling with where their story is going.

Start with the base of your plot. There are eight basic plot types that you can find in almost any type of literature, and of course your novel doesn't have to fit into any of these categories. However, it can also be a combination of several. 

1. Protagonist vs. Antagonist - This one is pretty self-explanatory. Your Protagonist against a malevolent person or organization.   
2. Rags to Riches - Your Protagonist rises from despair and obscurity to wealth, love, and status. 
3. the Journey - Your Protagonist takes a life altering journey.
4. the Quest - Something has gone terribly wrong! Your Protagonist must complete their goal at all costs.
5. Comedy - This light-hearted story often has an upbeat ending. Mainly featuring a Protagonist that is either humorous, or slightly oblivious.  
6. Tragedy - Your Protagonist's mistakes and flaws lead them, and others, to ruin. Sometimes the Protagonist dies, other times they lose everything that is dear to them. 
7. Transformation - Your Protagonist undergoes a life changing experience, often times sending them on the run.
8. Survival - Normally with few to no other characters, survival is difficult to write and requires a very specific, Laura Croft, type of character. 

Now that you've decided what plot types are closest to yours lets move onto your story structure.

 

Set up: The beginning 

Approximately the first fourth of your story is set up. Introducing characters, plot, world, conflict, etc... Here's a few basic elements that are often included in the beginning chapters.

• Theme
• Inciting incident
• Call to adventure
• Sliver of backstory
• Fateful decision

 

Adventure begins: The middle, part 1

The second fourth of your story is the beginning of the true adventure, at this point there is  no way your main character can turn back to the life they left behind. 

• Thrust into new world or environment 
• More information! How the world works
• How big is the threat? 
• New characters! Friends and enemies. 
• Foreshadowing 

Things get serious: The middle, part 2

The third fourth of your story is where the main bulk of all your character's pain culminates. 

• All is lost
• Darkest hour
• False victory/defeat
• Loss of a friend?

Resolution: The end

The final fourth of your story is where you decide who lives, who dies, and who tells their story. 

• Regroup
• Who still fights?
• Into battle
• Return to normal
• Theme revisited

Now remember, these are all simply suggestions. I never ever want to give you guys the impression that bloggers are the supreme know-it-all's. We simply tell you what works for us. Your story can follow whatever outline, plot, or lack thereof you want it to. It's your story, so go tell it. 

Protagonist

"A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles" - Christopher Reeve

Thane said something the other day that caught me off guard. We were sitting in her driveway when she turned to me with a peculiar look in her eye and said:

"You'd make a great character" 

Understandably, I wasn't entirely sure what she meant. I don't think any of us would consider ourselves book character material. But she kept talking, 

"Like, I'd read a book about your life. You have enough weird things happen to you and you're an interesting enough person that I think it'd be really cool."

So it made me think, whats the definition of a protagonist? 

Protagonist

noun

1. the leading character, hero, or heroine of a drama or other literary work.

2. a proponent for or advocate of a political cause, social program, etc.

3. the leader or principal person in a movement, cause, etc.

Often times when an author creates their hero they first start with their plot, and then fit a character into the protagonist shaped hole. So let me ask you this:

Why is the story more important than the character?

This is a legitimate question. Most plots can not function without a very specific main character. So what would happen if you took that character away? Would the rebellion crumble? Would the evil be defeated? Would the cure be found? 

Without your protagonist it is very likely that your plot would fail to function. 

To overcome this rather nerve-wracking discrepancy, many people resort to creating a 'chosen' or 'special' character to somehow try and convince the reader that the plot is supposed to be unable to support it's own weight.  

Now by no means am I saying that having 'chosen' or 'special' characters is a bad thing. J. R. R. Tolkien chose Frodo to carry the ring to Mordor, J. K. Rowling chose Harry Potter to defeat Voldemort, and Marvel has no end to the amount of special characters that are needed to save the world. But here's the thing, if you take away those characters the story would still continue. Someone would have taken the ring to Mordor, Neville would have fought against Voldemort, and eventually the ordinary people would have risen up against the threats. Would any of them have been victorious? No one knows. But the story continues on.  

You are the protagonist of your own story, but so is your character. They have a life, they have dreams, hopes, and fears. Your protagonist has just as much fear and insecurity as you do. Maybe they're not strong enough to defeat the villain, maybe they don't know how. That's what your plot is for, to bring alongside them both friends and enemies that they must encounter along their journey. 

Your protagonist doesn't have to be anyone special. Maybe in any other novel they would have been a side character, but you're telling their story. Not the plot, and no matter how amazing that plot might be it's your characters that make it memorable.