HERO OR ANTI-HERO?

What does Jack Reacher have in common with Holden Caulfield? On the surface not very much. One is young, inexperienced, gets himself into circumstances he can’t handle; the other, cynical and older resolves difficult situations. What they do share is they both see themselves as alone, and apart from what is considered mainstream  society. 

Both are regarded as anti-heroes.

An anti-hero is a protagonist who displays a different set of characteristics to those normally seen in a traditional protagonist. A classical hero/heroine is portrayed as having courage, moral strength, idealism, and who overcomes their internal and external challenges.

An anti-hero is a protagonist who doesn’t display such noble characteristics, but instead has a flawed nature. They may, like Holden, have unresolved issues, have a criminal past as does Jay Gatsby, or take the law into their own hands. The glamour of a Robin Hood, with his means justifies the ends scenario, even though outside the law and performing criminal acts, shows the enduring attraction of an anti-hero.

Traditional heroes are bigger than life, whereas anti-heroes display more unattractive personality traits. One of my favourite anti-heroes is Alec Leamus, from The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, where the protagonist is a whisky drinking, introverted and disillusioned spy.

Yet we are drawn to the rebel, the loner, the knight in shining armour who arrives, deals with the problem, and departs. The advantage of an anti-hero is that we can not only identify with their flaws, self-doubt, jealousy - for we have them too - but, as writers, we can take those weaknesses and use them as a tool for shaping a story. 

Writing Update 

I’m in the final stages of finishing up this year’s nano novel. I had hoped to strengthen my writing muscle and up my daily word count, but at the moment I'm taking it a bit slower than in November, returning to my normal writing pattern. But I am happy to have the first draft of something I really like – only time (plus more writing, and - slush pile alert - let's not forget the editing) will reveal if anyone else feels the same.

Next week, I’ll return to my novel, with completion of final revision, enquiry letter etc., and sending off to agents/publishers etc. This is a goal I creep towards at an infinitesimally slow pace, but which nonetheless hope to achieve by December 31st.

Due to the nano, I’ve been less active on Google+ and Twitter, though I hope to get back up to speed soon. I have contradictory feelings about social media. On the one hand I enjoy interacting with other writers – that’s a real bonus – and love it when I discover a post I learn something from; on the other hand, I sometimes resent how much of my time it takes, and wonder will it make any real difference in terms of books bought; and to cap it off, I miss it when I’m not participating! 

Today’s Haiku 

OBSERVED

she waits outside, cold,

ire builds, yet when he arrives -

she fakes a sweet smile 

Useful Links

A post with some good practical advice on rule breaking:

http://lialondon.net/writing-rules-in-fiction 

Good old Wikipedia: always worth checking out what they have on a subject.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_antiheroes 

Join me on Twitter at: teagankearney@modhaiku

To all story lovers out there, good reading, and to those of you who write, good writing.

THE ROLE OF RESEARCH

 Without doubt, imagination plays the most important role in creating the world where your story takes place. But unless it takes place in your house and in your locale, you’ll find yourself needing to do some research - even if it’s from your living room via Google. Research doesn’t mean you stop using your imagination. Irrespective of whether you write thrillers, detective novels or chick lit you need facts, as detail is what adds authenticity, making a fictional world filled with fictional characters believable. 

Science-fiction and fantasy, where you would think imagination has the greater input, are not exempt. If you want a world with two moons or a denser gravity, without research someone will pick up the fact that the orbit you’ve given your moons would create such gravitational stress that the planet would be torn apart in no time. (Mmm, there’s a dramatic scenario...evacuating a world with the clock counting down; and how many films have been made where our planet is about to be hit by an apocalyptic meteor - which is always destroyed with seconds left?). Many fantasy novelists use a medieval type setting. Again, historical research plus imagination.  

Writers vary in their choice of gender for protagonists. Some writers feel they can only write honestly about their own gender; others have no difficulty in exploring both men and women as they find both equally fascinating, and feel neither exists in a vacuum. In theory, women writers inhabiting male characters, and vice versa, should present no problem to the imagination, but here is where research has a role as it’s the accurate detail you provide which creates a genuine reality.  

People you know can be a great resource. If they’ve lived through a period in modern history before you were born, or if they’ve taken holidays at a location where you’ve set your story that you’ve never visited, they can give you personal insights. Biographies are another resource for an era or place you need to research. And don’t forget libraries - I found a wonderful librarian at my local library who photocopied nineteenth century maps for me.

  

The internet gives you access via Google, Wikipedia, etc., to any other number of online resources. I heard an interview where a writer said he’d done all his research for a novel set in south-east Asia without leaving his house. Now some may say that for the writer’s experience to be real you need to physically go there, but I would disagree. Memory,  or research, when combined with imagination create fictional reality...and when you have all three (not forgetting memorable characters and a killer storyline) you stand a fair chance of writing a decent book! 

Every detail of our experiences in life acts to create who we are – and we bring all of this to our writing. We inevitably mine our memories when we write. Our starting point is what we know, in the same way that the basis of every character comes from somewhere within ourselves.  I once read that although our stories may not be autobiographies in the literal sense, they do tell the story of our inner journey. An interesting thought! 

Writing Update 

The Pro Writing editing experience has been intense. I’m currently working on chapter twenty, and I’ve twenty-one chapters. At first, I think I was so overwhelmed by the endless lists, my brain didn’t properly register what the task would entail. It didn't help that I felt a compulsion to check everything on the list - which must be left over from my early school days when the teacher said it had to be done, and there was no question of not doing it. I soon realized I needed to work faster. 

So I put my head down and got on with it.

This impulse lasted, with a dip in mood at the beginning of each new chapter and a high at the end, until around chapter ten. From here on the task seemed to be more daunting, but I kept going. Again, for some unexplained reason at the end of chapter seventeen, even though I wasn’t finished, I was euphoric. 

At the end of chapter twenty one, I’ll have to go back and check over my repeated sentence starts because for some reason, I didn’t think I needed to do this (duh?), until one day the cursor hovered over those three words and informed me that repeated sentence starts can bore the reader. Boring? That caught my attention. Although I don’t envision the task as a long one, it will have to be done. 

The journey is not what I expected when I began writing this novel. Blogging, tweeting, social media were activities I read about, not ones I did. Almost three months of intense editing, after I don’t know how many drafts, was something else I hadn't envisioned. The interesting thing is though, I wouldn’t change any of it. I’ve learnt so much – about writing, about myself, about what I want to do in life – that I’m simply grateful to be a position to do what I’m doing. 

Today’s Haiku 

blonde brown stubbly stalks 

summer’s bounty harvested –

crows gather and feast   

Useful Links:

I will add these bloggers to the ‘I follow’ button on my website when I can pause long enough to take a breath: they’re all great people who provide great reads – each one for different reasons.

(Apologies to anyone I’ve left out...you’ll be on that follow list one of these days...)

http://adriannajoleigh.com/

http://glipho.com/team/meetaglipher-jasveena-prabhagaran-jazz1

http://rajcmallu.wordpress.com

http://kcrosswriting.com  

Reading Recommendations:

http://amzn.to/18SbSaG  Gold Dragon Haiku  - my first attempt at publishing poetry! 

Join me on Twitter at: teagankearney@modhaiku 

To all story lovers out there, good reading, and to those of you who write, good writing.