Quiet Observation, or, Why Writers Are Terrifying (Method Mondays)

    "Just to warn you, I'm a writer, so if you're going to be friends with me you should know anything you do or say could end up in a novel. Heck, I might even steal whole chunks of your personality for characters."
    "What did you just say? That's great, that's so going in the book."
    "Pfft, of course this character doesn't get his *insert personality trait* from you. Wh-What would make you think that?"

    All three of these things are things I've said, entirely seriously, to people I know at some point in my life. Surprisingly, there are people who still choose to be friends with me despite that.
    Ideas don't come from nowhere. I've done a blog post on inspiration before, but there's so much to say on the topic that I'll probably do many, many more. If I'm honest, about 10% of my characters' personalities comes straight from me, even if it's something as small as the character only being able to drink tea if its about 95% milk and 5% tea (I know, I know, I'm sorry. Someday I'll learn to like tea, okay?) The other 90% comes from bits and pieces of the souls I collect personalities, quirks, and individual traits of people I know.
    Don't get me wrong: you should not take your weird neighbour, slap a new name on them, and write them as a character in a book. That's how you get in trouble. But maybe your neighbour likes to walk their cat on a leash (mine does, and I'm not kidding. It's the cutest thing ever.) Can you write a character who walks their cat on a leash? Sure you can. It adds realism, and makes your book more relatable.
    One of the sweetest parts of reading anything is that moment of recognition when there's a tiny, almost insignificant, detail about a character and you go "Holy cow! I do that/I think that/I've felt that/I know someone who does that too!" From personal experience, this will make your readers love your character (which is awkward, when that relatable moment comes from the villain).
    This relatable feeling comes from drawing carefully from real life, and it's not the only benefit. You've probably heard a thousand times to "flesh out" characters. Drawing from reality is how you take a cardboard cut-out character and make them into a real person, someone your readers could picture bumping into on the street (or at least a street in whatever futuristic/fantastic/historical/otherwise not "real" world you've invented from them to live in).
    Why is this terrifying, you ask? Well, mostly because - and while I definitely can't speak for all writers, I think this might be more common - I don't realize I'm using traits I've observed in characters I create. Rarely will I be developing a character, see someone displaying a specific trait or quirk, and immediately apply it to that character. More often it comes out subtly, organically, through the process of developing and writing a character. It might be weeks, months, even years before I realize "hey, my friend does that, and so does this character", or "hey, that's just like that stranger I saw one time a while back." And if you'll forgive the vanity, I think this is what you should aim for when "borrowing" from real life. Chances are it's not even much to aim for, it's what you're already subconsciously doing.
    If you purposely take a bunch of characteristics from people you know and try to squish them into one character, it's probably going to seem pretty weird. It won't seem at all like a real person; rather, it will seem like some weird, suffering Frankenstein's Monster staggering their way through your plot. Every character needs a core identity, and after that you can add other personality traits, quirks, and ideas to them.
    I've said it before and I'll say it again: no detail is too small for you to know about your characters. Even if it never makes it explicitly into the book, you'll know it, and that will inform your writing of the character and make them feel so much more real both to you and to the readers.
    So take some time to observe your friends, your family, even strangers (in a non-creepy way, of course) and take a mental note of traits and quirks they have that you could use in the future. Let these bounce around in your brain for a while, and when it's time to create a new character, they'll come to life that much more easily and seem that much more real.

Storytelling and the Art of the Netflix Binge: Part Two (Method Mondays)

   Welcome back! If you haven't read the first part of this post, from January 22nd, you can read it here and then come back. I'll wait.

    Alright! Read it? Good, because this will make a lot more sense if you have. You'll remember from my last post that I compared episodes of a show to chapters in a book, and seasons to the book as a whole. Well, this is probably just about the most obvious comparison I've ever made, but here it is: if each season is a book, then multiple seasons is a series.
    Think about it: what makes it so easy to "accidentally" watch multiple seasons of a show in one sitting? And how can you apply that to your book to keep the readers coming back as each new book comes out?
    You know what that means: question time! Again, pick a show you loved, that has multiple seasons.

1. Pick your favourite multi-season show, preferably one that you had to wait for after finishing a season. What made you look forward to the new season? What made you wait for the season and come back to watch it when you could have watched something else?
2. Think about the plot of the first season. I'm not saying map every character relationship, conflict, and subplot, but think of some major ones.
3. Try to track these threads you picked up through the last few episodes of one season, and the first few of the next. Try to do this mentally if you can, so it isn't my fault when you spend hours binge-watching.
4. Which of these threads were "tied" so to speak? Which ones continue into the next season?

    This essentially sums up what keeps you coming back to the next season, or next book, without getting tired of the wait. The key is to tie enough of the threads up that your readers won't be frustrated and feel that they didn't get any closure.
    In a way, the transition between books in a series is the same as transitioning between chapters, just with higher stakes. Just like when you're ending a chapter, at the end of the book you never want the reader to think "well, that's that sorted. All tied up nicely, nothing more wrong." Unless, of course, it's the last book in the series, in which case you definitely want the reader to feel like everything's been resolved.
    The difference between book transitions and chapter transitions, of course, is that you need to make sure you give the readers enough incentive to wait for the next book and still come back. When you're just starting a new chapter, you can afford to mess that up a little; the reader will probably turn the page eventually, out of curiosity or a desire to finish the book. But if you don't give them incentive to come back to the next book, there's a chance they won't.
    I'll use Harry Potter as an example here, because it's difficult to spoil (but, y'know, in case you don't know the plot, spoilers ahead). Basically, at the end of each book, we know the main conflict of the book has been tied up; for example, at the end of the first book, we can see that the conflict with Quirrell, but we want to come back for the next books because we know there's more conflict with Voldemort to come. That plot doesn't end, nor does many subplots about character relationships. Therefore, we have enough closure to be satisfied with the ending of the book, but also enough intrigue and enough incentive to come back for later books.
    That's the method! Just like the ending of a season of a good Netflix show leaves you with enough closure to not be frustrated, it also leaves enough questions and loose threads to make you want to come back for another season, even after the wait for it. So basically, apply that concept to your book; wrap it up enough to not leave it totally open ended, but make sure to plant those seeds of continuing conflict and leave enough loose threads that your reader wants to come back even after waiting a year or more for the next book.
    Of course, there is a lot more that factors into whether or not readers will return to the series, but that's a topic for another time. This method goes a long way to making sure your readers are satisfied and excited for your next installment in your series!
    Thanks for reading!