# Who
During the month of November I'll be sharing a daily message to all the writers of Cosmic Voyage (and beyond). These messages are affirmations, writing prompts, story questions, and observations aimed at helping story development and motivation.
For the first week of NaNoWriMo I'll be focusing on the basic questions of the story: who, what, where, when, and why.
If you're a detailed planner you may have most of this worked out already. In this case, take the time to review and reflect and maybe, just maybe, you'll find a new nugget, or a different way of looking at your story.
If you're a pantser you may have skipped them entirely, waiting on the story that comes out to do all the work. I hope to show that even in an impromptu story there's a lot to be gained from jotting down some thoughts on each point before you dive in too far.
And for those of you who are already begun and underway with your logs on Cosmic, or in your new novel, it's never too late to go back to the basics. Perhaps it'll lead you in a new direction or perhaps it will motivate you to continue on your path.
This first week is all about questions, so lets dive right in:
## Who is in the story?
Who are your characters and how are they related to each other? Do you have a large ensamble or a small select crew? Are they a family or were they tossed together by chance? This is also a good time to think about, at least in rough terms, what makes them each unique.
## Who's story is it?
This is ultimately about determining who your protagonist is, and the answer may not be obvious. A good protagonist will instigate change in the story. Without them, something else would have happened. Maybe the ship would have crashed. Maybe the island would never have been found. Maybe they would have never fallen in love. If your character isn't instigating changes in the story, are they really the main protagonist?
## POV
Once you've decided whose story it is, now we must decide who your narrator will be? Are they the same character or not? Who tells your story? Perhaps it makes more sense to have someone else relaying the information. It might give you a stylistic ability to describe action more narratively in that way, but you may also trade some interior insight by going in that direction. Is this a Jane Eyre story told from the main character's perspective, or maybe you are Ishmael telling us the story of Ahab?
One of my greatest criticisms of the Hunger Games trilogy is that while Katniss Everdeen is clearly the protagonist in book one, the author's choice to keep her as the point-of-view character in book 3 left us away from the action for most of the book. We read about the other characters off doing things while we are stuck back at base. Was this really the best way to convey the story?
In our science fiction stories on Cosmic this is a regular challenge for all writers as the form of the QEC suggests that our stories need to be told from the POV of the person logging the messages. It railroads us toward epistaltory fiction that is first-person. But some authors have been very creative in their ways around this. In one story a ship-board AI is designed with narrative code to colorize the story happening aboard as if it were a reality TV show. In another, the ship's monitors report back what is heard in script form.
## Voice
Point of view also brings with it a second dimension, that of the character voice. In life every individual has their own way of expressing themselves, both inwardly and outwardly. How does that come through in your story's prose, and in the way the story is told?
How omniscient is this narrator, and how reliable? Do we understand the motivations of the characters and report on them, or is this strictly a reporting of events and action? Can we trust their word?
Some of the greatest fiction plays with these aspects and uses them to create suspense or surprise, from Fight Club to The Raven Tower.
## Who is it for?
Finally, I want to round out the "who" questions by asking who this story is for. Is this meant for young adults just dipping their toe into genre fiction or is this meant to challenge a seasoned reader's expectations? Perhaps this is the hardest thing to codify and the answer is often not black & white. You want your story to be enjoyed by a wide audience, right? Give this a little thought regardless and we'll see the question in a new light in the days ahead.
# What
The second big question about a story is "what". There's a lot to encompass here. We know a bit about who the story is about and for, but, well, what happens?
## What happens?
### One sentence
This is an essential question that I like to break into 3 parts. First, and arguably most difficult is, "What is the 1-sentence version of your story?" Before you take the plunge and try to answer this about what you're writing or about to write, lets play a game. Think of a movie you love and try to summarize it in one sentence. How about one of your favorite books? Try this a few times or even with a friend before you turn your focus to your own work.
When you do so, do you find it difficult because you don't know enough of the story? Do you struggle to summarize because of some need to perfect the sentence? Think back on the films and books of the game and try to focus on how flexible you could be with those descriptions and still make it work. Then, try to give yourself the room to be vague or imperfect. Get that sentence out and write it down. Stare at it for a minute or two. Does it "feel" right? If not, give it some time and try again.
### What happened next?
The second way I like to think about the "What happens?" question is to put it in the context of telling a friend. If you called up your best friend and started explaining the events that take place in your story how would you do it? Would you get mired in the details right away or try to paint a beautiful scene? Not yet. In inter-personal storytelling we have a natural tendency toward keeping alive the feeling of the narrative with tension to keep the listener asking "what hapened next?". Try this with yourself in the mirror, or with your pet. Try telling, not showing. Yes, this is the opposite of how you'll eventually write, but we'll get to that later. For now, see how far along you can narrate the events about to take place. If you're in an initial outline, or pantsing, don't worry about telling the whole thing or getting too granular. Maybe tell it at a high level or focus on the beginning scenes.
Your goal here is to try and internalize that sense of drama and avoid stagnation on unimportant aspects. In fiction, especially world-building fiction, there's a lot of time spent dreaming up your reality and all the rules, groups, places, and things. In science fiction and fantasy there is a trope known as the info-dump that tends to happen as a result. That is where the author presents all the basics of this universe and its rules to the reader in a blob, often through exposition or through a proxy character that is new to the setting. If you suspect you'll be doing that, see if you can put it into a narrative of its own with tension enough to get a reader asking "what happened next". If not, perhaps there's a way to defer some of that information for another time when it's less intrusive on the story and won't slow your pacing.
### What's different?
The third part of the "What happens?" question is a way to short-circuit bad writing before it can start. We know that good characters grow and change through a story, but so does the world they inhabit. Something happened, after all. What was the impact of that something.
Think about your world at the very beginning of your story and the characters in it. You might want to write a tiny bit of that sensation down, or at least try to visualize it strongly.
Now, think about the very end of your story, after the resolution and the last page is closed. What is the world like now? What has changed?
If you want to go a step further you can try to do this exercise at key moments in the story. If you're following a 3 act structure you can do a sketch at each act. Or perhaps you want to focus in on the moment of climax and highest tension. Knowing these key "frames" of the story will help you work toward them, even if you don't have details on how it'll get there just yet.
## What do you want the readers to feel?
The "what" question can also apply to the reader. What do you want them to feel? Should they laugh? Do you want them to be lost in an immersive world? Do you want them to feel empowered? What sort of mixture do you want to stir up inside them?
## Is there a theme?
Along with the reader's feelings, is there a greater depth to the story? Is this an allegory or is there an overriding theme? Or is this a fly-by-your-pants action thrill-ride that's just there for the popcorn? Like everything else we've covered there's no right or wrong answer.
## Is there a moral?
Finally, what is the moral, or is there one. Should we learn something?
That's a lot of things to consider especially if you're not planning everything from the start. Don't feel the need to answer every question, but try to give them each a moment of thought. Perhaps you don't sense a moral now, but considering it may lead you somewhere down the road.
# Where
What in tarnation? Was I going to write another writing encouragement? Indeed I was. So lets see what we're up to today. Oh yes, "Where".
I'll keep this one brief. I need to get back to writing my own stories, you know?
## Where does the story happen?
It's a basic question, but it can lead you in a lot of different directions. On Cosmic Voyage we have stories from spacecraft of various types. Generation ships to solo craft are at play. There's more at play than that, however. We have stories at outposts and on other planets. We even have at least one story from the point of view of a consciousness stuck in interstellar space without a ship. Neato!
The setting you choose can be as important as a character in some stories, but not all.
## Is the setting essential or is the story timeless?
The movie Clueless (1995) is a remake of the Jane Austen novel, Emma. In that book the setting wasn't essential to the story. The characters, motivations, and desires drove everything along nicely and so it was ripe for transport to a modern era.
Some stories are indistinguishable from their setting. Discworld, for instance, is all about the setting. In fact, science fiction tends to have more emphasis on setting as part of the genre than other types of literary fiction. Fantasy, likewise, is often intimately entwined with the worlds it creates.
What about your story? Is every part of the setting vital, or is it backdrop to something more important? Will your story take place in just one locale, or will you hop around. Thinking of Star Trek it's easy to see how a mixture of a familiar setting (like the Enterprise) and unfamiliar settings (like the planet of the week) can make for interesting storytelling and give the author a lot of choices.
## Does the location change the characters?
So why does it matter what setting you choose? How does it affect things, most notably the characters? If you set your fantasy adventure in a run-down merchant ship in the 1700s how does that change your lead? What if you had her captain a modern destroyer in the Chinese fleet?
Perhaps you're not considering such a wide shift of settings, but try to think of some variations in your default locations and bounce them around in your head a bit. If you were going to write about a generation ship and the senior crew managing an interstellar ship of thousands of people what can you change up? Is the ship well kept or disorderly? Is the captain the original one or has this crew been born here, perhaps generations removed from the original? What elements of a modern city do you bring to life in your ship? Have groups segregated either voluntarily or through some force? Is there commerce?
This is all world-building 101 except the next part: Take a minute with your choice and run over a few of your main cast and try to think of how those world-building choices have formed them or made them different in some way. Being born on ship vs first generation may have some physical effect, but also could change the priorities vs a planet-centric person. What are their goals and dreams?
## Do the characters change the setting?
Then it's time to do the reverse. Settings are inhabited (mostly). The things that live there affect the world. What are people doing to your city? Or to your farm house in the country? What affect does your gentleman doctor have on the sleepy hamlet he has moved to after the war?
Characters move the plot and make waves in the settings. Let their actions tell us about them by how the setting reacts and is changed. It's one of the techniques to use in "show don't tell."
Good luck!
What's that? Wasn't that guy going to send us one of these every day? It's getting pretty late. Hmmm.
What can I say? I had a great day writing, but forgot all about the encouragement I wanted to send out. It's 10:20pm now, so this one is going to get written quick!
# When
The question of when is more complex than you might think. That's mostly because stories don't necessarily find themselves constrained by time the same wy we do. This is a good thing! It gives us some very creative options (think Momento) and sometimes even plot devices (think TimeCop).
## When does the story take place?
So lets start with the basics. When does your story take place? Is it a single timeline or do you a more complex story happening in different timelines, like in the Godfather II? Perhaps your story has an epic sweeping scale that covers all of creation until the death of the universe (or more!), or maybe it covers the events of one day in great detail.
## When are we within the plot?
So that's when your story happened, but what about the plot itself? Are we starting at the beginning or are we coming in part way through? Is the action fully underway and we'll catch up on the backstory as we go? This is very common and a great way to skip past a bunch of boring setup.
## When is the story told?
If we know when the story happened and our window into it, when are we hearing about it? Are we with the action now as it happens or relaying it after the fact in summary and recitation. A good example here is Moby Dick. Ishmael will tell the story as it happened but only after the fact.
On Cosmic Voyage our system is set up to relay log messages. This would naturally incline our stories into this aftermath storytelling, but as you may have noticed in reading some of the authors have found creative ways around this. My own Melchizedek story uses a mixture of techniques such as personal log messages, live-recorded voice transcriptions, and email messages to vary our distance from the story as it unfolds.
## Is the story being told linearly?
What about the order of the story itself? Sometimes start to finish is great, but other times you want to reveal things at the right moment. Perhaps you have flashbacks or perhaps we're jumping around from moment to moment following a theme. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind gives a unique and powerful view of this in action as we're jostled around a failed relationship as those memories are erased from the main character.
## Is the story chronological?
This is a similar question, but distinct. Perhaps a story is told linearly from start to finish, but not chronologically. It may be that beginnings don't always happen before endings on a clock. Believe me, if I had started writing this post earlier in the day I had some really interesting stuff to say on this subject. Instead I'll just leave you wondering and maybe that'll do the trick.
## Will the narration and story happen in tandem?
Finally, another take on the 'when is the story told' question asks about the sync-up between story and narration. Is this happening even remotely in time as we hear it or are we getting the tale from an old man at the inn of events that happened fifty years earlier? Then again, perhaps there's a lot of backstory that needs covered before we get into the here and now. Forrest Gump is a fantastic example of that. How much do we learn from that bench before we stand up with him and walk away from it?
Keep thinking about these different angles on your stories and share your thoughts. Writing is fun. Be silly. Experiment. I can't wait to read what you share.
# Why
As in "Why-o-why did I decide to write one of these every day of November?"
Also, it's a nice question for your story.
## Why these characters?
Why _THESE_ characters specifically? That can be an in-story question: "Why are these the characters that need to DO THE THING™?" It can also be a question for you as a writer: "Why are these the characters that you want to use to tell the story?"
Is there a better character to use in this scene or in this story as a whole? What makes a character good or bad for it? I'd argue that the right character choice is one that makes the story more compelling. That means the character choice combined with your setting and plot create some sort of drama. If you're lacking drama, or lacking "oomph" in your scenes, maybe your character isn't right for the action.
I recently read a very interesting fantasty novel based around the idea that the chosen one, storied through fables and destined through prophecy, sets off on day one of his great journey only to catch an arrow to the chest and die. Instead, it's his childhood friend that heads out in his place, doomed to failure from the start.
What drama!
## Why this story?
So maybe you like your character, damnit. You don't want to change her, but things aren't working out the way you want. Well, why _THIS_ story? Do you have 800 pages of backstory that you love writing to set up this tale? Why not write that story instead? Or maybe the character is really cool but just in the wrong genre entirely.
## Why here?
And speaking of genre, why is your story taking place _HERE_? Is your setting adding to your drama? Is it setting the right stage? Is it pulling its weight or did it just kind of fall in your lap?
## Why now?
Finally, why now? Why is your story being told now, or why are you telling the story that happens in time now? Would it be more interesting if you started a year later in the timeline? Or maybe one hundred years prior? Or maybe you're better off telling the story after the action is all done.
Why why why?
# Evocation
Now that the basic questions of story are out of the way, lets hone in on the craft of writing itself. How you tell a story is as important as the story contents itself. A dry telling of an awesome moment will fall flat. A dramatic telling of a mundane event, on the other hand…
## Show don't tell
The advice you'll hear in every Creative Writing workshop and 101-level class is "show, don't tell". It's painful to hear, and groan-worthy to repeat, but it's absolutely the truth. Is your character sassy and bull-headed? Well that's awesome! Don't tell me that, though. And yes, "don't tell," includes having another one of your characters tell us in dialogue. Instead, give your character a scene where those qualities show up and affect the outcome or reactions from others. If you do it well you'll never need the words "sassy" or "bull-headed" at all.
There's a million-and-one examples of this online. If you find yourself struggling with it, give a little web search.
## Make the characters active
Your characters should drive the story events, not just respond to them. I've mentioned this before but it bears repeating. If you have events occuring in the world and your characters aren't either: a) directly impacting their outcome, or b) somehow causing them in the first place, something is wrong. Either you're telling the wrong character's story or this isn't the story you should be telling. Get them in there, get dirty, and change things.
A mental exercise you can take is to imagine your story if your characters didn't exist. What happened differently? Hopefully quite a bit! Now, zoom in. In this SCENE, what if your character wasn't there. What happened differently? The answer should still be quite a bit.
## Break the rules
Finally, as with any writing "rule", it's important to acknowledge that there's good reasons to break them. Like any art, though, don't go creating new avant garde styles before you can practice the basics. If you're new to this, then show-don't-tell. If you've got that down, then maybe you have the know-how to decide when telling is okay. Here's some further reading!
https://curiosityquills.com/limyaael/balancing-showing-telling/
# Fear
Are you getting intimidated by writing? Is the blank page overwhelming, or is it more specific? Something about your story not adding up? Maybe you feel unqualified to the task?
Lets talk about that.
## Don't worry about it being bad
Here's a secret: everyone's first drafts are bad. Yes, everyone. Even that guy. Sometimes they're so bad they need to be thrown out, yes, but more often they reveal something about the story that was impossible to see until it was all there on the page. Then it's just the matter of a great deal of hacking, tweaking, rewrites, and finesse before you have something solid.
Writing during nanowrimo isn't about writing a good book. It's about writing 50,000 words. If those words are crap it really doesn't matter. We all kind of assume they will be! Not just yours, I mean.
If you're writing on Cosmic you might not be treating this like a first draft of some longer work. That's also fine. This platform doesn't exist so we can all load up publishable quality content. It's an outlet for experimentation and expression. It's okay to put some bad stuff up there! I certainly have.
## Don't worry about having everything figured out
Are you a perfectionist? Do you have a story that's super duper important in your soul that needs to be conjured into reality it its truest form so you can be like Wyld Stallyns and bring peace to the earth? Yeah, that's also not a real thing. Let go! Even if you are the greatest planner in the world you're not going to plan a story into existence. Just write, and then write some more.
Here's another secret: you don't need to keep it! If you haven't figured out how the middle of your story is going to work then just write it and see what happens. If you don't like it, shove it in an archive folder and try it again a different way. (Don't delete anything! You might want to reference a really cool turn of phrase you had in the failed chapter later on.)
On Cosmic you might want to send a log message from one of your ships without really knowing where things are going. Normally in a novel or short story you'd want to pull out the bits that don't move the story along or lend themselves to the theme, world-building, or some-such. But here on Cosmic we all benefit from these little glimpses of your worlds, even if nothing much happens. You lend character and credibility to the entire site and help the other stories feel more legitimate.
So feel free to log your captain's critique of the jello in the mess, or duty log 302. It's fine. If nothing else it will give you a chance to speak as your characters and get to know them better.
## Don't worry about making a mistake
And finally, don't worry about screwing up. Did you say that Jim had blonde hair in chapter one and then decide he's a lizard man in chapter 8? Oops. In a novel that's all fixable stuff down the road. When you're sitting back with 50,000 words or more and re-reading you'll catch that stuff and you can flag it for revision. That's part of the process.
But what about on Cosmic Voyage? What if you declare there's nine people on the ship in one log and suddenly there's eleven? Well, you can either go back and tweak the old entry (yes, you can do that. It's okay. Just run "web" when you're done), or maybe roll with it. Why are there suddenly two more people on a ship halfway across the galaxy and nobody noticed? Maybe someone else on the QEC will point it out to your crew and then…DRAMA.
Even if you don't catch it, don't be afraid of it. There's too much going on in your story to keep it all straight in your head all the time. That's why editors exist! You're doing great.
Now, as Dory says, "Just keep swimming."
# Questions for your main character
Sometimes it can be helpful to write about things that aren't a part of your story to help you get to know your characters. Here are a few prompts to explore:
The chief problems in my relationship with my mother were...
The chief problems in my relationship with my father were...
The chief problems in my most recent relationship were...
# See the world through your character's eyes
Name three works of art (music, literature and visual art/architecture) that mean a lot to you.
Oops! I missed a day. We're getting into the shorter writing-prompt updates now and that means I've already written most of them out. Without the impending doom of the clock to remind me things are slipping my mind completely! Anyway, here we go:
# Characters have hopes and dreams
Describe your expectations of how your life will develop around Love, Career, and Health.
# Appearances speak
What are you trying to say through your clothes?
Is it intentional or not?
# Even small past events shape us
None of us move through life without stirring up some sort of trouble. Put yourself in the mind of your characters and consider your past. Can you think of occasions when you harmed someone close to you or were especially cruel? How do you think on those times now? Is there guilt? Is there shame? Does that shape how you act today?
# Our child-selves are never fully lost
While we're still exploring the minds and histories of our characters, lets move back to childhood. What did you most enjoy doing as a child? Do you get those feelings now? What triggers nostalgia? How do you express those feelings today?
# We won't get along with everyone
List a few ways in which your characters might be difficult to live with. What sort of habits do they keep? Are they the courteous & responsible type, or will they drink your orange juice and leave an empty bottle in the refrigerator?
Let this prompt be a daydream inspiration and take you where it will. Instead of a roomate, maybe you want to imagine your character in an office, or getting along with others on a long, strenuous hike. It may help to think about people in your own life that rub you the wrong way, or little habits that seem to grow into major issues with time. What can you bring from your life into your work?
# Characters create part of the setting
Settings are more than the places and things in your story, they are also the people who inhabit those spaces. When you breath life into a rickety old ship it's not by describing the bilge smells but through the voices and tone of the salty crew. When the futuristic cityscape goes zooming past in its neon glow it's not yet alive. The tripped-out hackers dancing in VR make it all pop.
What parts of your settings come to life with the people? In what ways do they make it more real and more vibrant?
# Little things with big effects
Spend a moment picturing a normal day in the life of your characters. What object could be introduced to the scene which would drastically alter and "shake up" the action? Take it to the next level. How could poor choices amplify these problems and make the situation more dire? Don't be afraid to go big on the drama.
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James Tomasino