Staying a Writer—Character Work and Writing Philosophy
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Becoming a Writer, Staying a Writer: The Artistry, Joy, and Career of Storytelling
When I stumbled across the title of J. Michael Straczynski’s book, I lost no time putting it on hold at my library. After all, the first part is easy—put a pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, and you’re off. Continuing to do that day after day, however, is where perseverance must take over from inspiration. As any writer will agree, once you cross the borders of the first idea, the first page, and even your first sold work, here there be dragons. Since creative longevity is something we talk a lot about here at Ground Crew, I was thrilled to find this book fully lived up to its promise, Straczynski demonstrating through hard-won experience that writing is more than discovering dragons. It’s learning how to ride them.
In this book, Straczynski blends of the grit of Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art and the enthusiasm and humor of Keep Going by Austin Kleon. He tackles multiple dimensions of the writing life, going deep into what lies beyond inspiration, how to stay true to the vision of your work when others can’t see it, and what we actually mean when we talk about good writing. If you’re looking to learn from a master craftsman, Becoming a Writer, Staying a Writer is an engaging yet challenging conversation about what it takes to keep going after you start on the path of writing.
Who is J. Michael Straczynski?
Before we get too much further, it’s important to know the guide behind the book. Each chapter is drawn from the wisdom of a man with more than thirty years of experience as a writer for film, TV, books, and comics. Straczynski’s credits include Babylon 5, the new Twilight Zone series, Netflix’s Sense8, Thor (the movie and the comic), and even more stories that have had profound, long-term cultural impact. In short, J. Michael Straczynski knows what he’s talking about. However, despite his Hugos, Eisner Award, and numerous other accolades, Straczynski approaches his craft with a sense of humor and down-to-earth sensibility that brings readers into the reality of being a writer: it’s hard work, and there are many pitfalls. In this book, it’s his goal to convince authors that you are the heart of what you write, and your ability to carry on and find success has everything to do with cultivating a process and voice that is uniquely yours.
Crafting with Character
There are far too many gems from this book to share in one blog post (you should see all the notes I took as I read!). However, because character is central to Straczynski’s approach to writing, I’ve collected some of the top ideas that you can put to work right away in your work-in-progress, focusing on character development and the ways characters can inform scenes and even plot. These concepts are applicable for writers at all stages of their journeys.
Character = plot
Strong characters are what compel us to continue reading. A twisty, engaging plot quickly loses interest if there isn’t an equally fascinating person exploring its turns. Now, this doesn’t always mean quirky or larger-than-life personalities. Characters who feel real to us are captivating, which explains why even the simplest stories can steal our hearts. Straczynski believes that plot rises out of character rather than the other way around for this reason: “Character isn’t a consequence of plot, character is plot; the more you know about your character, the more organic the storytelling process becomes because they can help you figure things out from inside the story.” Understanding the person inside the book will allow you to make decisions and build the world.
Character creation = the fuel for your story
The fuel for your story, as Straczynski calls it, comes from asking logical, fundamental questions: “Who is your character, what does s/he want to achieve, how far will they go to accomplish it, and how far will someone else go to stop them, and why?” These are questions we ask the authors we work with all the time, and the better answers you have, the stronger your characters will be. You can answer these questions twice, once to determine the external conflict and the second time to determine the internal conflict.
Proactive character = the holy trinity of story development
Strong characters are proactive characters; they make decisions. These choices should be directly tied to the answers to the questions above. They have something they want, and they are actively trying to obtain it, which leads to conflict. Straczynski states characters “must be active, not passive, moving the story forward with their choices rather than letting the story push them around. This in turn gives you access to the Most Holy Trinity of story development: choice, consequence, and responsibility.” A strong character navigates all three, and a strong story does, too.
Crafting scenes
One sentence that stopped me while I read was this: “Just as every note in a song or symphony matters, every scene in a work of fiction is important because every scene is a story unto itself, with a beginning, middle, and end, and needs to be written accordingly.” If every scene is a story, that means every character inside that scene must be moving through an arc, even if only in a small way. This is the opposite of scenes that merely serve to move the story from one plot point to another. If you’ve ever written a short story, you already know that this is much easier said than done.
Putting scenes to work
Making scenes into their own mini stories creates layers of richness and tension. As editors, we often refer to this as making scenes do more work, and I was delighted to find a similar concept in Straczynski’s book. Characters should have friction with each other—someone isn’t saying all they know, someone has to make a compromise, someone is dealing with the fallout of an event that happened just before. Even more importantly, those characters needs to move through that friction and reach a new place before the scene is over. It can be small change, but change must take place. A problem must be resolved by the end of each scene.
If you take a good, hard look at your scenes, see if you can find any that are merely moving characters from one point to another. Collapsing or condensing scenes like this into each other are great ways to create one compelling scene that becomes a story in itself.
“Question every choice, every decision, every twist and turn to ensure that it’s bulletproof. This doesn’t just apply to the big moves of your story; scrutinize all the choices made by your characters, down to the smallest detail. Did they choose the smart way, or the most convenient path for you as the storyteller? If the latter, are there other possibilities that might be more interesting?”
Writing philosophy
I always come away with treasures when I read craft books, but Becoming a Writer is one that I’ll likely add to my collection so I can sit with the words again and again. Straczynski’s philosophy of writing, creation, and pursuit of beauty resonated with so many of my own thoughts and feelings as someone who works with words. Though it’d be impossible to agree on everything, it’s rare to find a kindred spirit in something as intimate as an writer’s approach to creating. His deliberate practice and intense care about what it means to write is aspirational. I wish I could reprint the entire chapter on how writers should burn with the story they’re telling, but you’ll just have to go read it for yourself.
“As to where I am now on this journey, after years spent chasing truths big and small, I’ve come to the conclusion that the core explosive element at the center of a story is subtler and more elegant than I’d thought. Yes, truth is a big part of it, but it is not the whole of it, or the purpose of it. It’s about creating beauty.”
What are you creating?
All writers should take time to consider what they write, why they write, and why they write the way they do. It’s well worth your time to pick up this book to see one writer’s approach and how he puts words around it, but if you only take away one thing from this blog, let it be the encouragement that even a successful author like Straczynski continues to work at his craft and improve. He’s always searching, and that’s what pushes him to keep creating. If you can put words around your own purpose in creating, you can find the fuel that keeps you going, too.
“Writing is an art, a noble profession, and a holy chore.”
The photo in this post is thanks to Behnam Norouzi on Unsplash!
