Smuttin' It, Smuttin' It, Genre Style

Hey, all you writer types. Let's look at spicing up your genre (or even literary) stories with a little (ahem) action. How do you incorporate sexy time into your stories?

Let's say for you a publisher is open to spicy but not all-out erotica, how do you determine where to draw the line yet still keep the sexy actually, you know, sexy?

Elizabeth Donald: Sex is part of the human experience, to a greater or lesser degree according to a person’s personal drives. We don’t have to literally shine a spotlight on the penetrating moment in order for sexuality to be at the forefront of the story. A character may be consumed with deep need and powerful attraction - indeed, it might be the driving force of their actions and even the plot, without us actually following them under the sheets. It’s not censorship to construct a story about sex and sexual attraction without actually depicting the act; if you’re doing your job right with evocative language, the reader will feel all the things you want them to feel, regardless of the explicitness of your story.

L. Andrew Cooper: In the fiction I've published, at least, the sex I've described has always been horrific in some way, from attempts to conceive a child for sacrifice in Descending Lines to the relentless taboo-breaking of Alex's Escape. I guess some scenes in The Middle Reaches are steamy, but they're still weird. So mostly I don't have to worry about sexy... I have to worry about explicit description ("showing") parts and acts. I guess if I have to satisfy a prudish publisher, I describe less or cut more.

Chris Riker: Sex is a great time for internal dialogue. A writer doesn't have to re-invent the old Penthouse Forum; he just has to tell us what the sex means to the characters. 

"Then, while I was still trying to plot her trajectory, she said, “I won’t do anything on a futon, Zebulon.” The futon was in good shape, only a few beer stains on its lime green canvas, but it was a futon, so, as the French would say, ‘non humpez vous.’

I said, “There’s a big bed. The sheets are clean. And call me Zee, please.” I was hoping. Really hard. She kept me waiting a solid minute, standing there, considering her options. Then…

“Zee,” she said my name that way for the first time and put her arms around my neck. “Take me to the big bed with the clean sheets.”

Yes, I remember how her pencil skirt slid off her hips by lava lamp and the way her voice rose in primal song as she taught me to please her and the smoothness of her skin and the way my lungs drank in the scent of her hair. I remember giggling together afterwards and not being able to stop or wanting to. And when at last Jing fell asleep in my arms, I remember lying awake and feeling… real." - Zebulon Angell and the Shadow Army

Sean Taylor: I love to focus on the after or the before. I think there's a lot of magic to be covered there in the buildup or the afterglow. People get real then. Case in point, in this scene, Rick Ruby is visiting one of his, ahem, informants, a nightclub singer named Donna:

Normalizing Marginalized People In Your Fiction

Okay writers, let's talk about diversity and slice that pie in terms of marginalized groups. 

What is the difference between including diversity in your work and using your work as a platform to encourage understanding and empathy in regard to diversity? Is one better or worse for authors?

Rachel Burda Taylor: Hmm... For me, I don't know that diversity is something I set as any type of goal.

At the same time, I live in a place that is crazy diverse where it's normal to be surrounded by and be friends with a range of people from different backgrounds, lives, etc. (Visiting the nearest mall is about like going to an international airport. My WASP kids are the minority-by-numbers at their high school.) It would be weird to not include the same diversity in my books that I have in my daily life.

Josh Nealis: In novels, not always but often, I never mention skin color of a character. Also, I try not to create a character in comics specifically to be black or female etc, the charcter idea needs to be pure. Not pandering, but purposeful.

John Anthony Chihak Soltero: The difference would lie in the intent and the knowledge and experience one has on the subject, just like any other story or character. 

Chris Riker: If the aspect/trait/feature/preference is important to the plot, SHOW DON'T TELL. If it's not important to the plot, be satisfied with representation. Don't force it. Don't preach. Don't kill the lesbian just for the hell of it. Above all, remember to tell a story. I invite you to review my work and tell me if I handle things well. (Getting to Know People at the Rainbow Connection, Itsy Bitsy).

Jesse James Fain: David Weber once said when complemented for his female characters that his success in writing a woman without being one was "That's because I wrote a person, a character, that just so happened to be female."

I try my damnedest to do this with any character of any marginalized or oppressed group. My latest sold story has a mixed native hero with complex beliefs. He venerates the great spirits and the Norse gods. He is a child of his two cultures. Two cultures I myself have ancestry in and know academically and from being involved in ritual. I give the details you need, and let you fill the rest, because this is fiction, and it's my world, and my tale, and you were kind enough to share it.

Kay Iscah: The difference is intent. Which is better? Depends. If you want to feature a culture/disability or bring awareness to it, you have a higher responsibility to get the details right, but well done, those stories can be very engaging and meaningful.

I generally write stories removed from the context of Earth, so that gives me some freedom to think it about it more in terms of creating variety. What's jarring is taking current-day issues and trying to cut and paste them into a setting where they don't fit. But as long the issue or inclusion is organic to the story, it's fine. As a general rule low tech, remote villages should be more homogenous, and high tech, urban settings are more natural to blended populations. But diversity isn't limited to skin tone (or species if you're writing sci-fi/fantasy). Diversity is personalities and perspectives, heights, talents, etc. etc. You should write different characters with distinct personalities and goals.

Brian K Morris: I've just dabbled in what I call "pulp with a social conscience." Until now, I've managed to write some really strong female characters, as opposed to "romantic interest/hostage." But I've not built up the moxie to go further until a year ago.

Building diversity is a good thing. In the introduction of ANY character, the reader should be able to UNDERSTAND them and why they do what they do.

Sean Taylor: I've actually done several posts on this blog about this, and my POV on it is constantly evolving. I still believe we can force diversity into our writing without it coming out well, forced, and without hurting the stories themselves. However, I do not feel that we can intentionally choose themes that offer us the opportunities to include a more diverse cast or create situations and settings when and where a more diverse cast makes sense without having to be forced like a triangle block into a circle hole. And I am embracing that aesthetic more and more in my writing. That way, the intentionality is there, but it still doesn't come across, at least to me, as trying to write "message fiction." But honestly, our history as writers is filled with what some folks derogatorily call message fiction nowadays. Look no further than the poetry and stories of Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Kate Chopin, Oscar Wilde, Harper Lee, and Khaled Hosseini. Sadly, when most folks I hear bag on "message fiction" is not because the fiction is bad, but because they don't agree with the message. Case in point: The Narnia books are straight-up message fiction, but whether you agree with the message or not, the stories still hold up as fun adventure yarns for children and children at heart. 

What have you done up to this point in your fiction to put a focus on the marginalized and to build intentional diversity into your stories?

Rachel Burda Taylor: I do try to reflect the actual populations of the places I write about. So if a place (talking about you Gander, Newfoundland) is primarily WASPs, it's important to me to reflect that while also having the visiting protag have a more diverse friend group that reflects the population of her hometown.

TJ Keitt: You need to avoid tokenization, as well as tropes that are insulting and bigoted (e.g. the "noble savage" and "magic negro"). There are two ways to do this:

1) Tell a story that only your character from the marginalized community could lead. I think this is what made the first Black Panther movie, for example, so interesting. If you inserted any other Marvel hero into that story, it would not have made sense. It's also why I think the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies worked so well (they truly were stories about a teenager) and why I thought the first Wonder Woman missed the mark (aside from a couple of scenes, any DC hero who was overpowered and long-lived could have helmed that story). The challenge with this is you have to have a deep understanding of the character and story to pull that off, or else it becomes cringe.

2) Allow the marginalized character to exist normally in your broader world. Black, Hispanic, Gay, Trans, etc. are just ordinary people who interact with other people from different communities on a daily basis. Those interactions can include conversations about their identities, but most often, people are just interacting and discussing regular stuff. It's actually why characters like War Machine and Falcon work in the MCU: Yes, they're Black Americans, but they're also just regular (in the context of this world) people who are working through extraordinary circumstances. They don't have to be "credits" to their community; they just have to be represented as fully realized humans and not tokens or tropes.

Sean Taylor: I have also written stories with a theme, not just a plot. Those themes were ideas that were important to me at the time of the writing. My first published story was about the change in the heart of a small-town sheriff when he has to choose between letting his town give vigilante justice to a black kid accused on flimsy proof or to protect the kid until he can actually have a fair trial. I guess the story was still strong enough to make the message worth telling because it won an Award judged by the late Judith Ortiz Cofer. Even in my Pulp work, Bobby Nash and I were intentional when we set Rick Ruby, a white P.I., in an almost black world. Not only did it give up better opportunities to tell good stories with a variety of diverse characters, but it also allowed us to use even classic Pulp tropes to tell stories that mattered beyond mere punching and shooting tales. 

Jesse James Fain: I can only write what I know and understand. So I make no specific efforts to represent anyone I have not witnessed, and that I cannot flush out to be A PERSON and a Character with a role to fill.

This only applies to me, and my approach, but In fiction I am no one's champion. I am a storyteller weaving threads of human themes, themes that everyone from Vladivostok to Lisbon and Patagonia to the Arctic would understand if they read English.

Message fiction irritates me heavily. I don't want real-life politics or struggle in my fantastic escape. I champion my beliefs all day by example and debate. I don't need to thinly veil them in someone's good time. If the quiet part is noble, you will say it out loud. That goes for my own beliefs as well.

Every writer shows ideals, that's part of the human experience and thinking, but the difference between "this is how I think and it bleeds in a little." And "HEY GUYS THIS IS THE POINT, SEE! SEE! SEE ME SUPPORTING THE THING." IS normally sparkly clear, and the story normally sucks in the latter example.

John Anthony Chihak Soltero: I have done a lot. I don't know what to point out or suggest. I have mainly female characters of various racial backgrounds in my comic books. I attempt to make them pointed and have purpose instead of just being women. 

Connor Alexander: Years back, I had a Sikh character in a book I was writing (While I'm not religious, I find Sikhism fascinating). I was mostly using the internet and not feeling great about the character. Then, I was at a pizza place and realized the owner and his family were Sikhs. I asked the owner if I could buy him lunch and ask him about his faith. He agreed and we sat over lunch for hours. He was so generous with his beliefs and perspectives. Really made the character come to life.

Carl Moore: I let the geography do it naturally -- my horror novel that took place in New York City would be silly if it didn't have a diverse cast of characters.

Brian K Morris: As seen above, I've not done a lot until The Terrors from last year. I did my research on African-American communities during World War II and talked with a number of my Black friends in the hopes that I got it right.

Kay Iscah: Unfortunately my best stories for showcasing diversity aren't published yet (which frustrates me, but it's a long story). Seventh Night is vaguely medieval, so the conflict is more class diversity than racial or cultural diversity. You see a bit more of the broader world in the Before the Fairytale set, but not at a level I would brag about. I did have a subplot about the young sorceress using magic to treat someone with a harelip (cleft lip/cleft palate) and promoted Operation Smile when I first released those chapters. I have several back-burner projects that are more deliberate with racial diversity, particularly in protagonists... I don't think every story needs to hit every check box, but I do see the value in diverse stories, settings, and characters. Hoping to live long enough that my catalog of work will show a better variety. I didn't worry about Seventh Night being a bit Eurocentric because other stories I had in the works explored other cultures or more naturally diverse settings, but I honestly thought those would be out long before now.

Do you plan to ramp that up or back off or make any other changes to the way you include the marginalized in your work based on recent events?

Ef Deal: In my recent book, Aeros & Heroes, tout Paris is at the chateau, including the infamous Count Custine, an open homosexual in France, where it wasn't illegal. The king states, "It's an offense against God. Scripture is clear." Jacqueline says, "Scripture is rarely clear." She then expounds, for the sake of her 'salon' audience, on what is natural. She challenges the king to heal a guest's crippled leg, or turn water into wine, or walk across her pond. Yet we're all commanded to be imitators of the Christ, so why can't he do it? She then points out that Scripture is very clear on one point: The punishment for adultery (of which the king is notoriously guilty) is death. The king quickly shuts up.

Later, her lady's maid, a young teen, confesses that she's a lesbian, and the local priest has told her it's a sin. Jacqueline says, “I can’t tell you what sin is for you, Gaudin. If the curé says it’s a sin, I’m sure he will be happy to hear your confession. At the least, you’ll do penance. At the worst, you’ll be looked down upon by everyone except those who truly love you. If I could, I’d send you away to school to learn Greek and Hebrew properly. Then you could read the Holy Scripture for yourself, study it, and wrestle with God as Jacob did, and as I have done, to learn what God wants from you. Confess yourself to God. I’ve found God to be far more forgiving than the church.”

John Anthony Chihak Soltero: I am changing how I create these stories as I feel someone with better experience should share that voice. I will be concentrating my efforts on what I know, which is being Latino, having mental illness and being queer. I don't know that I am qualified to give a voice to other minorities. 

Jesse James Fain: I'm writing people. People who may be of any race, creed, or color, but I'm not banging on mental doors for anyone, not even my own groups. I'm telling tales about heroes and villains and badasses that come from where they come from, and I believe that's the best way to do them justice in speculative fiction.

Shay Vetter: I'm struggling with this right now. The books I have out are middle grades with a diverse cast, including LGBTQIA+ characters. The new administration wants to call those characters porn, even though there is absolutely nothing spicy in my books. Certain billionaires who own book platforms support the new administration. Do I pull them off those platforms? What about the cozy SF series I'm writing for adults?

I'm nonbinary and bisexual. What I write is reflective of who I am and the kind of world I want to see. It's not just about normalizing marginal groups but making a world where people like me can live to their fullest. I don't believe my existence takes away from someone else. If anything, I think we'll all be richer through diversity. I think the belief that I infringe on someone else just by existing is propaganda by people who need someone to blame so their followers will focus on that and not on the fact that their leaders are actual ones who want to infringe on them.

I'm pretty upset at the world right now.

Brian K Morris: When I released The Terrors, one person accused me of "race swapping" and equating it to lazy writing (which would have been to just stick with a white cast). Two minutes later, I got a 2-star rating on Amazon. While I got some amazing reviews for the book, the comments on FB were all about their disappointment in seeing someone introduce a strong, Black set of characters. (For the record, when I checked out the accounts, they were all middle-aged white guys who probably weren't even around when the characters MY cast were based on were in print). And I am petty at heart...I wanted to tweak their noses and annoy them. So I'm working on the sequel novel, along with two other novellas in the same universe. The only change I'm making is that there will be more of what upsets the bigots, and I couldn't be happier.

Klara Schmitt: I know TikTok often gets a lot of pushback for being a time-suck and/or an echo chamber, but I will credit it to really exposing me to a ton of different voices and perspectives. Anytime I wanted to learn more about what it was like being ADHD or Ace or even what experiencing seizures might feel like, I search it and watch videos exploring peoples' lived experiences and listen to their thoughts. I am also grateful to the resource https://www.tumblr.com/writingwithcolor, which has helped me tremendously.

In high school I took a course Teaching Tolerance through a homeschool co-op, which I believe has since been renamed Learning for Justice, but that course really stuck with me. I think that course was perhaps more inline with the first point "encourage understanding and empathy in regard to diversity." I think it's important to have both, to expose folks to diversity, but to also build up empathy for what it's like to live an experience other than your own.

My story actually blends a lot of cultures' folklore with elements of a lot of mainstream religions and I'm trying to do my best to keep it in grays. My main characters might have perspectives of the legitimacy of certain beliefs, but that doesn't mean they are right in their thinking, which will evolve as they continue to be exposed to more people and more context.

In addition to religion, I have two non-profits essentially brokering diversity in pursuit of peace and the right of existence, one of which is international, so I wanted that represented in the makeup of their employees. I try to include people of different races, ethnicities, genders, sexualities, disabilities, etc., but also put them in positions of authority. Perhaps as a woman, who works a corporate job where there aren't a ton of women in leadership roles, I wanted to write what I wish was more readily prevalent. So now I have a lot of women in my book, some questing for honor, some for power, but the variance is in their motivation, not their gender.

The one lesson I learned the hard way though is to definitely find 2-3 sources on name pronunciations that originate outside my own language/country. One chick is stuck with an incorrect pronunciation because I only verified her name once before writing it down phonetically. But then I fell in love with the name and now I can't seem to change it in my head. Oops. Coincidentally, I am really glad I listened to books #2 and #3 of Naomi Novik's Scholomance series, because it allowed me to hear all the international students' names with proper pronunciation and I definitely missed out on reading book #1.

Also, writing accents is a lot harder than I thought and I've spent a lot of time on websites teaching Haitian Creole because I value authenticity. I am still hoping to find some folks who might be able to vet my dialog for the various accents before I publish, because incorporating languages that I don't speak into my writing means I'm much more likely to get it wrong. (See previous paragraph, lol.)

Kay Iscah: I have too many projects on the back burner to react to recent events through fiction.

For readers, it may seem to ramp up as I go along. For me, it was always part of the plan. Though I think of it more as variety than highlighting marginalization. Phillip is essentially a nerd stuck in the life of a medieval peasant, so he's marginalized in his society. Meanwhile, the princess is neurodivergent (on the psychopathy spectrum) but there's no language for that in a medieval setting, so I just hint at it with things like "thought more than she felt". The sorceress lives a marginal existence as the only practicing magic user in the country, and she has a magical ability that was a bit of a disability in her youth. The prince has a bizarre family situation... so there are many ways to be an outsider.

A lot of my unpublished protagonists are outsiders or marginalized in some way, but that may be more subtle with some characters than others. I do think it's important to see demographics as a trait of a character and not the whole character.

Sean Taylor: I'm ramping up. Like Kamala said, we're not backing down. The marginalized are going to face a lot of troubles in the years to come, and I like to think that as a writer, I can at least open an eye onto that world and those troubles and the ones who benefit from their hardships. 

 What authors do you recommend who are doing a commendable job of highlighting this kind of diversity in their work?

John Anthony Chihak Soltero: Sophie Campbell does an amazing job in her work on Wet Moon. She features great character development, stories and artwork, while also giving voice to Queer characters, those with disabilities and various races and body types.

Kay Iscah: My reading is all over the place, but I'm reading a lot of dead authors and older books at the moment. I think readers need to put in some of the effort and just try new authors and genres. There's so much pressure on authors to build a "brand" that individual authors may stick to one type of issue rather trying to hit all of them. I watch a lot of Asian media and have started dipping my toe into some Nollywood series. The internet has made the world far more accessible to us. Instead of expecting an Irish author to highlight African stories, I think it's better for readers to try out African authors.

Lot of my personal focus is fairytales and folklore. So I'm constantly (if slowly) trying to expand my imagination by reading the mythologies of different cultures.

Marginalization is a concept where setting is very important, and anyone tackling the issue should be very aware there's a difference between being the only one of something in the city, and a city full of people like your character. Same character, different level of marginalization because the setting changed. Both place and time. Being a witch in London in 1524 and being a witch in London in 2024 are completely different experiences.

Sean Taylor: I think if you look past the works of more old, white dudes like me and read more LGBTQIA+, POC, refuge, and international writers, you'll find all the stories you could ever find. Sure, that means you may read fewer folks like me, and that'll hurt my wallet, but I'd rather you learn to be a more diverse thinker and more active in fighting for marginal peoples. Heather Plett has a wonder article about this called Centring Marginalized Voices and De-Colonizing My Bookshelf that is well worth checking out. 

A lot of my own interest in reading marginalized voice comes from being an American Lit/Comp teacher. As I mentioned in my response to question #1, I think back to the poems of Langston Hughes writing about being Black in a White United States, Kate Chopin writing about being little more than property in a patriarchal world, and Oscar Wilde, who had to hide (though clearly not very well - 😏) his homosexuality in metaphor and symbolism in his fiction. 

Connor Alexander, who replied above, is a board creator creating amazing RPGs and board games based on marginalized groups. 

Help! My Characters Hijacked My Story! (But Did They? Did They Really?)

We've heard it as writers over and over again: I was going in one direction, but my characters sent me in another direction. But... is that true? Can our characters really hijack a story from us? Let's ask the panel of experts and get to the bottom of this mystery. The game's afoot, Watson!

How secure are you in your plots when you begin writing a novel? Or a short story? Is one form more or less likely to be disrupted or redirected by a shift in characterization than the other for you?

Daniel Emery Taylor: I’m a screenwriter but in MOST cases, I have scenes and plot points but no finalized plot. I’m more of a free writer … just creating characters, putting them in situations, and letting things evolve naturally.

Sean Taylor: I'm the oddball type who will sit and drive and think on a plot for months before I commit to even beginning to put it on paper. I'm rarely a pantser. Like, almost never. No. Even rarer than that. I like to have a first direction in mind before I start typing. But I think I'm the odd man out for thinking that way. I do it for both longer stories and short stories. 

Because of that, I've never really been one to believe that my character honestly have any control over the story. I'm the writer, damn it, and I made them up. I may add details to their character as I write, but that's not them doing anything. 

HC Playa: As someone who started writing life as a strict pantser and then slowly shifted to some murky middle between pantsing and plotting, my plot is always up for negotiation 🤣. In general, I have specific story beats I want to hit, but if I find a better way or a more character-driven way to get there along the way, I make the changes. For me, novels have far more wiggle room for plot changes than short stories do. It isn't that I can't achieve character growth in short stories, but for me personally, I have to have a concrete beginning/middle/end and expected word count already in my head to tackle a short story. That former concrete planning on the front end tends to override character whims.

Sean Harby: I normally have an idea where I want the story to go, but even after I've done an 'Outline', I often alter things if the story seems better told another way. As far as one type more vulnerable to drastic changes, I would say my novels are less set in stone than my short stories or novellas.

Brian K Morris: I'm a plotter who doesn't look at his outline once the writing begins for the day. This way, inspiration can lead me to fresher modes of thought (or into dark alleyways where there's no escape, which has happened more than once). For the most part, I'm secure in the plotting, but will consider a better way as it occurs to me.

Maya Preisler: For me, sitting down to write is like a road trip. I know where I want to start and end, but I recognize my route may deviate because of roadblocks or because I found something cool I wanted to visit along the way and adjusted my course accordingly. In my experience, longer pieces of writing are more likely to be disrupted or redirected because they’re longer journeys so there are more opportunities for distraction.

Robert Freese: Not secure at all. It’s like a new day, I have no idea what’s going to happen next.

Dale Kesterson: I always know the key plot points of my mysteries (I don't want to have to actually SOLVE the thing on the fly 🙂 ) but there have been times when what I have in mind isn't right for one of my characters.

L. Andrew Cooper: I do a lot of pre-writing for novels, usually starting with notes about the lead characters and then developing them as I develop the plot outline, which will spawn more characters if/as needed. If characters are going to shape the plot, they’re usually going to do it at the outlining stage, so the plot is pretty secure when I begin the actual drafting. That said, in the novel I finished drafting, um, today, Alex’s Escape, the development of two characters and the relationship between them caused me to rework the outline, shrinking it by three chapters so I could change the trajectory toward a new ending and then add three more chapters to develop new concepts (I didn’t want to increase the book’s length if I could avoid it). So, my method doesn’t guarantee plot security. I do less pre-writing for short stories, so characters are more likely to turn a tale in unexpected ways, but they still don’t very often. As a side note, I don’t think characters have ever taken over during the drafting of a screenplay. A screenplay’s story beats are too exacting for me to leave much to chance before I draft.

Jamais Jochim: Yes, they can if you've written them well enough.

My short stories are more likely to survive intact, but only because there's less time for them to influence me.

Bobby Nash: Oh, I love this topic.

I start with loose plots. I know certain things that need to happen. I call these plot points signposts. Then, I set my character(s) off toward the first signpost, but let the characters dictate how I get there. Sometimes, this takes me down paths I hadn’t planned as the characters react to situations. Other times, I uncover wonderful character moments.

When you say your characters send you in a new direction, which of these meanings is closer for you? (a) I wasn't really planning anyway, so I just went with the flow (pantsed it). Or, (b) I had a solid plan in place, but the more I got to know my characters or the more they changed as I wrote them, I had little choice but to refigure my plots.

Daniel Emery Taylor: It’s a little of both. I oftentimes will have specific scenes or dialogue in mind that, as a character evolves and becomes more real, no longer feel authentic. This happens after casting, too … the actor will bring their own input and twist. This can also change the trajectory. We try to make the characters as real as possible and then listen to what they tell us.

Chris Riker: I trust my characters to steer clear of cliches and predictable plots.

Sheela Chattopadhyay: For the runaway projects, it was both a and b. However, the sidetracked parts were more characterization and trying to flesh out more of the world than I was wanting to. It was closer to a non-pulp style, so I'm thinking of rewriting it closer to a pulp style since that tends to be smoother relatively in the writing process.

Robert Freese: I’ve had characters that received an entirely new fate because I grew to love them.

Jamais Jochim: B, sorta: I let the characters change the plot a lot, but a good part of my original outline does survive. Albeit barely.

Bobby Nash: Of these two options, I’m closer to A, but really I’m more option C, which is a combination of A & B. Often, things will shake out in dialogue that makes me realize something important about the character or the plot. In one novel (no titles to avoid spoilers), the antagonist says something that made me realize that he was more involved with something that happened to the protagonist than originally planned. This was a big revelation, not only for the readers but for me because it wasn’t planned. This made the story better and the relationship between the two characters much more interesting.

In a short story, I had a pretty simple plot. Good Guy. Bad Guy. Victim. A couple of secondary characters. My plot was pretty straightforward since it’s a short story. I was writing the final act, where the good guy and bad guy meet face-to-face for the first time. As they are talking to each other, I realized that the bad guy wasn’t the “real” bad guy of the story. That’s when another spoke up and the story went from straightforward to one with an interesting twist that made the story better. I went back to drop clues to the twist and was surprised to find that they were already there. The characters knew before I figured it out.

In a series, I planned a villain arc where the protagonist and antagonist would meet in book 1, then again around book 3, and then have a final showdown in book 6. In book 3, I killed the antagonist. It wasn’t planned, but it felt right for the series and the story. It also allowed another character to move up from a secondary or tertiary character to become the main protagonist. That character ended up being a better villain than the one I killed off early. A happy accident. Certainly not planned. Also, as with the previous example, the clues were already there. That character had been planning a coup all this time. I just didn’t know it yet.

L. Andrew Cooper: B

Brian K Morris: Definitely the latter. I will come up with quirks for the characters as they become more real in my mind. I won't surrender control to them, however, nor will I blame them for my digressions. I'm the one in charge and I'm where the story buck stops.

Maya Preisler: Neither? B is a bit closer. I usually have a plan but it tends to be a broad outline and I fill in the details as the story flows. For me, it’s less about getting to know my characters and more that even our best friends and closest relatives still possess the capacity to surprise us. Often when my characters make unexpected choices I find those decisions make perfect sense in hindsight, especially once I revisit their backstories.

Sean Harby: I'm not one to say the characters change the story. The story changes because I feel it's better told another way or feels more satisfying. I do try to get inside their heads as far as reactions to circumstances and dialogue, but the story determines how it unfolds. So ... sort of?

HC Playa: For me, it is a little of both. I write a mix of series and stand-alone stories. When it's a character I know really well I might just go with the flow b/c I can step into that character like a seasoned actor. When it is a new and unfamiliar character, it's usually me fleshing them out and realizing the idea I initially had doesn't match up with the character I have built so far. It's easier to change the plot a bit than to go back and rebuild the character.

Sean Taylor: If my characters ever redirect me, it's almost always because I didn't really know them well enough to build a plot around them yet. I jumped the gun, and they became better characters while I was writing, it was because I didn't pay attention when I should have been watching them (or creating them and figuring out who they were/are in the first place). 

How well do you know your characters when you begin a work? Do you think that it's only because they're becoming more fully fleshed out as you write that they're reshaping your plot? Have you experienced the opposite, where because you knew the characters inside and out, the plot was changed little because it was already based in character?

Bobby Nash: Character is key when writing this way. Knowing how a character reacts to certain things informs where your story goes. If you take 3 characters that you know well and drop them into the same plot, you will get three different stories because how those characters react and respond to the plot you put in front of them will be different based on who those characters are. These are “real” people to me. If I try to make them do something out of character then it feels wrong to me and to the readers. Have you ever read a book with characters you know well and thought “That character wouldn’t do that?” That’s what I try to avoid by trusting my characters. It doesn’t work without trust.

HC Playa: Oh absolutely. I rewrote my first novel about 5bazillion times. After 3 short stories and 3 novels, I know exactly how each of these characters is likely to act. I just finished a digest novel with a "bonus" story and am starting the final installation. I haven't quite worked out my plot yet, as I have just started, but I expect few deviations. I know how I want this series to end. I know the players. I know the various motivations and conflicts. All I have to do now is weave it all together.

Most of my short stories have gone precisely as I planned in part because I have the character and vignette set in my head before I ever put my fingertips to the keyboard.

Lucy Blue: For me, all the details of plot come from character. I have a situation going in, and I know who my characters are at a pretty deep level not because I plan it but because I just do. Character and dialogue are my superpowers as a writer; both just sort of happen for me. And from that comes plot.

Daniel Emery Taylor: They reshape the plot as they become more fleshed out, yes.

Sean Harby: I have a pretty firm grasp on the high points of my characters when I begin, but through writing them, I get to know them a little better. As I said above, the way I see them reacting does impact the story.

Sean Taylor: I tend to know them inside and out, at least in all the important ways that make the plot matter. I know what they want. I know what they're willing to do to get it. I know what will get in the way of them achieving that. And I know what it will cost them in terms of their soul to claw their way back to a second chance to achieve it when the first one (or few times) fails. I also know their major relationships to other characters and enough "job application" information about them to have the kind of minor details that make a character seem real and not just paper thin. 

Robert Freese: My relationship with my characters is like any friendship- the longer I hang out with them the better I get to know them. More times than not, I know all their strengths up front, it’s their vulnerabilities I discover as the story is written.

Maya Preisler: It depends on the work. For my longer pieces, I usually spend hours agonizing over the details of my character’s lives to really learn who they are. In my shorter pieces, the characters tend to spring from my imagination more fully formed. That’s a fascinating question. “More fully fleshed out” does seem like an accurate way to describe the process. From an internal perspective, there’s a sense of immediacy that occurs as I’m writing where it feels as if the character acquires a sense of agency and enough self-awareness to struggle against the plot. I have had that happen once, where I based the characters off of people I know and love so there were relatively few surprises in my plot. However, that’s only happened once.

Sheela Chattopadhyay: The current one that I'm writing is fairly secure. No one is trying to jump into a different storyline or genre yet. It's a short story, which is probably the difference.

The previous attempts have characters changing everything up, including time frames, and genre, and adding new characters whenever they can't solve something for their own amusement. I was aiming for a book for the other projects, so that might be part of it.

In my runaway projects, I would get to know them too well and they derailed my plots badly. On my current short story where I haven't paid any attention to word count and have been writing it on a typewriter, I had an idea of what I wanted to happen and of my characters. It's going smoother as I know less about my characters before I write.

Brian K Morris: A bit of both, but I know the broad strokes that make up the characters before I begin the actual writing. The little touches that make them more interesting often come to me as I flesh out the story.

L. Andrew Cooper: For novels, I usually know my characters very well before I begin drafting. They tend to live in my head for weeks, more often months, sometimes years, trying out different fantasy scenarios, before I pin down their details and try them out in a storyline. Therefore, I’m more likely to experience a plot that changes little because it was already based in character. For example, in my forthcoming novel Noir Falling, the central (perspective) character was loosely inspired by someone I knew 25 years ago, but I watched what I took from the real person grow and change dramatically before I put him on the page. By the time he got words, though, I knew what his character arc would be, an arc inseparable from the plot of Noir Falling. Of course, writing Noir Falling would have been impossible without a good map… I expect readers to find aspects of it dizzying… but no matter how surreal and seemingly random things get, it was all planned in advance. Characters for screenplays and short stories don’t tend to live in my head as long before I write them, but I still usually know them, flesh and all, before they appear on the page.

Jamais Jochim: I know them absolutely before I start writing, and then they show me things I just can't unsee. Some just say, "Nope."

Chris Riker: I'm Nuts

Chris Riker is a father, author, and journalist. He grew up in Rhode Island and now makes his home in Georgia with his wife, Ping. He has always loved books, from science fiction and fantasy to historical novels and biographies. Building on a background in broadcast news, including a five-year stint at CNNI, he is now focused on telling stories with strong characters and moral resonance. Chris Riker’s premiere novel, Come the Eventide, focuses on a world after the fall of civilization and a dolphin named Muriel who is trying to save mankind from extinction. It is available now on Amazon and Audible. His second novel, Zebulon Angell and the Shadow Army, follows a hard-living Uber driver from Atlanta who happens upon a sex pill, leading to intrigues and adventures that take him inside the haunted tomb of China’s first emperor.

Tell us a bit about your latest work.

I’m pleased to have written Goody Celeste, which came out just recently. (I have a new one. More on that in a bit.) It’s been a chance to relive my childhood summers in 1969 Rhode Island. Of course, I got to invent a better version of me, one who’s not so oblivious to the world, and to women’s feelings. Ha! My main guy, Paul, meets Cece, a smart, beautiful witch, and together they face their problems. 

What are the themes and subjects you tend to revisit in your work?

I’m worried about planet Earth. From this, I have discovered my fascination for two main themes: 1) Eat the Rich. Pretty self-explanatory, really. I’ve come to believe that extreme wealth is a fatal addiction. The idea that only “more” is enough is truly cynical and destructive. (This is why I worry for our beautiful planet.) This leads to 2) Hope. I’m a stingy writer. I will never offer you much hope. Wishing for a pony? You’re not getting it from me, fella. On the other hand, I don’t like nihilistic endings. So, you will always know that the hero will find the faintest glimmer at the end. And it’s usually coming from a change within. I think this theme is best seen in Zebulon Angell and the Shadow Army. Zee’s opening line is: “I wanted to conquer the world that morning, but my beer tasted skunky, and my head was full of cats.” In fact, I’d written that line years earlier, and it was only in 2021 that the story sprang forth. Zee does get a chance to do great things, but because he is who he is, he blows the opportunity to smithereens. He also meets Emperor Qin’s ghost, but you have to read the story to find out how. Point is, (spoiler) he learns about himself.

What happened in your life that prompted you to become a writer?

I’m nuts. I’ve always loved words. I read and I write. When I was in grade school, I got into an argument over grammar with my principal. (I think I was wrong, but you’d never have convinced the younger me.) When my mom took me to the beach, I’d jump in the water for ten minutes, and that was enough. I’d spend the rest of the day in the bathhouse, reading paperback sci-fi. Even in August, I wore my February pallor. As I say… nuts.

What inspires you to write?

I guess it’s fear of mortality. Odds are, I can’t afford a solid gold pyramid, so I’ll just jot down some stories, hoping to echo a while beyond my time. I’d love to say I want to teach people to be nicer to each other and to Planet Earth, but that’s an even bigger longshot.

What would be your dream project?

I’d love to see my work turned into a streaming show or movie. I have a huge ego, so I’ve sent copies of my novels to famous actors. Nothing. (hmmm) I read an interview with Jennifer Coolidge while watching “White Lotus.” She said she wanted to play a dolphin, so I mailed her a copy of Come the Eventide, which stars dolphins and octopodes trying to save the Earth. Nothing. (hmmm)

If you have any former project to do over to make it better, which one would it be, and what would you do?

I actually don’t. I fiddle with some of my short stories when I go to post them on my website (one more check!!!!), but I really feel you have to close out a project. Now, if Hollywood wants to “improve” my work… I’m easy, but not cheap.

What writers have influenced your style and technique?

Hopefully, many more than I can list. I’m a firm believer in stealing tricks from the best. (Not the works, but the tricks.) I grew up with Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, and Heinlein. Of those, I still go back to Bradbury for the sheer joy and beauty of his writing. Instead of technobabble, he’ll write poetry. Now, there’s a trick I try to steal! I also love Murakami, Garcia Marquez, Stephenson, Eco, and more. These guys have a million times my intellect, so I flatter myself just by reading them.

Where would you rank writing on the "Is it an art or it is a science continuum?" Why? 

Good question. I work with students and with other aspiring writers, so I do see the value of respecting both art and science. I would lean maybe 60-40 towards art, but you gotta have solid grammar and a developed voice. That’s hard work and accepting the fact that the English language is a beast that will never be tamed.

What is the most difficult part of your artistic process? 

Time. Will power. Fending off the depression that comes from waking up in a cold sweat at 3am with a plot hole glowing like a nemesis before my eyes.

How do your writer friends help you become a better writer? Or do they not? 

They absolutely do. I know that I’m perfect. They help me pretend I’m not. Actually, there’s nothing better than feedback. Abject praise may feel good, but seeing the puzzled looks across the Zoom screen when they ask me what the hell they just read – that’s invaluable. I need to know where to fix my perfect stories.

What does literary success look like to you? 

Being invited to book signings, podcasts, and interviews. Maybe getting the chance to blather on about the process. I would like to sell books, of course. Lots. It’s getting harder and harder, thanks to billionaire tech bros who have flooded the market. I watched the streaming version of Stephen King’s "Lisey’s Story." In one scene, an author steps out of a stretch limo to a cheering crowd. Um. Not holding my breath in 2024. Anyway, I’d love to think some people would get to know me from my writing. That would be cool.

Any other upcoming projects you would like to plug?  

Novel #5 is finished. I’m shopping it around, but agents are 100 percent business-oriented. They cannot and will not “take a chance.” So… I will probably self-publish. I want to read up on a few marketing techniques first. How I wish writers could be writers. Anyhoo… Alexander and the Butcher finds a Shatner-esque actor in 1963 researching his role as Alexander the Great… and then going back to meet (and do much more than meet) the real thing. Look for it soon.

For more information and FREE short stories, please visit: 

ChrisRikerAuthor.com

Amazon Author Page