Make BELIEVE in Once Upon A Time (and your story!)

Who would ever believe that Rumplestiltskin's son and Snow White's daughter have an illegitimate child after Pinochio slacks on his duty to care for said daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming, and later on the daughter meets up with other well-known characters like Peter Pan, Jack and the Beanstalk's Giant, the Wicked Witch of the West, Little Red Riding Hood, Robin Hood..and even Elsa from Frozen--all just a car trip away from her loft apartment in Boston??

Eh?

You'd never believe it. And I'd never thought it could be done, until my kids and I started watching the hit T.V. series, Once Upon A Time.

Wowsers, the twists and turns of the series take a fan's breath away and spin them into new levels of believability in almost-ridiculously impossible situations.

Even tonight, during a commercial break an ad came up about the Paddington bear movie, and my twelve year old says, "Oh geez, another movie about talking animals. How un-real." UM...Child-o-Mine was on the edge of his seat waiting for the next twist in Once Upon A Time!!

It is when a writer (novelist and T.V. writer alike) takes their audience like a dog on a leash following every twist and turn without question and wanting more, that the writer has truly accomplished a very grand and successful feat: making the Impossible seem Possible...enough to MAKE the audience BELIEVE the fiction! YIKES!!

I'd like to humbly dissect how they do this. (And I am certain my terminology could be replaced by more sophisticated writerly language). I will also share a bit about how this has helped me in my current novel.

1. Characters worth investing in! The good guys are truly human--with hopes, dreams, motives, flaws, mistakes...you name it, they are someone you want to befriend at times, or slap upside the head at other times. If a character seems to step out of line of their true self, you know the motive behind it and it does not seem "unbelievable" because they have truly been shaped into a person you want to route for....
And the bad guys are truly broken--they aren't all evil...they are products of their environment, situations, or tragedies...and so they, believe it or not, usually become a character worth investing in, too. From ashes comes beauty, right? Well, the complexity of these characters gives you a sense of... believability and very possibly human in the most fairytale sense of the word.

"You have literally seen my heart. You know it's not untouched. You are not all evil and I am not all good. Things are not that simple."--Mary Margaret, Once Upon A Time

What I Have Learned In My WIP: It's not all black and white. Wouldn't it be easy to say that this character is all bad and this one is all good, and the tension is clear cut between them? But that's cookie cutter fairytale world. And let's just say, Once Upon A Time has given fairytale world as we knew it, a pretty two dimensional reputation. I now look at my characters from several facets, AND, I am more willing to take the risk of throwing a wrench in their paths to make them dig deeper in their arc...even if it seems like an impossible task.

2. Intricate Backstory: Once Upon A Time is really a weaving of Historical and Contemporary. The historical mainly unfolds why the characters are the way they are in present day...and how they are connected to the characters who we really would never believe would come together (see my first paragraph). Some authors utilize flashbacks in their stories to help firm up their character's present-day motives or unveil a secret that will affect the rest of the story...but even without actually flashing back in writing, I now realize how important it is to KNOW MY CHARACTER'S PAST! If the past is fuzzy, and their is no solid reason to explain why the character does what they do, why the character knows who they know, or why the character views the world in a certain way, then an author is asking an awful lot of their reader to take the author's word for it and just believe that's who they are.

From FanPop

"Once I saw the man behind the beast. Now there's only a beast."--Belle, Once Upon A Time



How I Have Applied This In My WIP: While I have taken the liberty to weave in some flashback scenes in my novel, I have also used dialogue between my present characters to reveal their past stories. And it is when I have worked out the kinks in their past stories that my eyes as an author have been peeled back to reveal clearer motives and twists in the actual story.
Plot twists become more complex and intriguing when the characters are acting out of deeply-rooted fibers of their being.
And if an author hasn't shown the first growth of that fiber in some way or another, then the twist won't be so much of a page-turner but a book-closer.

Just like this hit T.V. series, I hope to have a "hit" some day too...and I am willing to create those characters worth investing in by developing the backstory needed to give them a present story worth reading...what about you?

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Angie Dicken is a full-time mom and lives in the Midwest with her Texas Aggie sweetheart. An ACFW member since 2010, she has written five Historical Romance novels, has a Historical underway, and is represented by Tamela Hancock Murray of The Steve Laube Agency. Angie also spends her time designing one-sheets, selling Jamberry Nail Wraps, and drinking good coffee with great friends. Check out her author page at www.facebook.com/dicken.angie and her personal blog at angiedicken.blogspot.com 

Please, Mind The Gap (In Your Manuscripts, of course!)

For our British readers out there, I must say that one phrase which has stuck with me during the years after my visits to London, is “Please, mind the gap.” For those who don't know what I'm talking about, it is a very literal warning announced in London's underground train system. There is usually a gap between the platform and the train, and you must mind it or else trip up, or slip a leg through the gap.

Oddly enough, the recording that plays repetitively in the tunnels, rang loud in my memory as I went through and polished my recent manuscript.

“Please mind the gap,” the women's British accent pronounced the words as I came upon my own wordy gaps. (Yet another reason polishing is so necessary before the big send off.)

Mind these gaps as you polish, to avoid your reader tripping into the pit of unbelievability:

Physical gaps: These are easy fixes...usually just adding a sentence to bridge the gap. Say your character is sitting in a chair having a conversation. As the dialogue heats up, she suddenly slams the door and rushes down the hall. When did she get up from her chair? Look out for these...even though they are simple, they can contribute to confusion and frustration on the reader's part.


Emotional gaps: This gets a little more tricky. My example is: My heroine lashes out at someone out of jealousy, and although she thinks her way through to resolve, the next encounter with that person (who witnessed the jealous outburst) must address her past behavior in some way, and then SHOW that she has now replaced it with a different emotion (say contentment). This can be done using dialogue and action tags. Basically, you can't just depend on deep pov in one character, to smooth over a bump in her relationship with another character. It must be shown.


Plot gaps: Have you ever read a book where the hero and heroine despise each other and then suddenly they can't take their eyes off each other? Hopefully if you have, there were some plot elements that developed that attraction. One of my biggest pet peeves in Hollywood, is when a movie doesn't fill in the plot gaps, and suddenly the character arc is more like a character pole vault. Plot must work TOWARD character development, if your characters take off and leave plot behind, then you'll have a lot of gaps to fill.

Can you think of any other gaps in the writing process? Would you be willing to give a concrete example from your own wip?

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Angie Dicken first began writing fiction as a creative outlet during the monotonous, mothering days of diapers and temper tantrums. She is passionate to impress God's love on women regardless of their background or belief. This desire serves as a catalyst for Angie's fiction, which weaves salvation and grace themes across historical cultures and social boundaries. Angie is an ACFW member and is represented by Tamela Hancock Murray of the Steve Laube Agency.