Don’t let her bubbly personality fool you. Ms. Ryan does bad things to her characters and challenges others to do the same. Her advice? Take readers to the point where they believe the situation can’t possibly get worse, then, make it worse. Keep raising the stakes. Pull away your main character’s support system. Don’t shy away from situations where reaching the external goal would mean not reaching the internal goal. And by the way, there doesn’t have to be a happy ending.
Carrie Ryan also discussed her theory of credibility points. She believes readers give writers about 100 credibility points. If a writer asks the reader to believe something big (like in the existence of zombies), that will take lots of points. This means the writer should add details to make the smaller leaps of faith more believable.
So, how about you? Do you let your main character struggle or are you too quick to race to the rescue? Please leave a comment and share.
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Oh, you got to do a workshop with her? That must have been a great experience!
ReplyDeleteCarrie presented a session at the SCBWI-Carolinas Fall Conference in Durham. She talked fast to try to share as much as she could. I took notes and tried not to SQUEE too loud.
ReplyDeleteI bet this was such a great workshop. I learned so much just by reading Carrie's work...I can only imagine what a class with her would be like!!
ReplyDeleteI saw the trailer for "the forest of hands and teeth" just yesterday and I thought it looked incredible. I like her advice and I do tend to put my character through as much as possible. Frequently I have to scale back the disasters during the editing because it becomes unbelievable that anyone would get through some of the situations but I like to start out as harsh as possible. Thanks for sharing this post.
ReplyDeleteIf your interested in an autographed copy of Carrie Ryan's fabulous THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH, you can call and order one from Park Road Books in Charlotte. There number is 1-704-525-9239. Details are on her blog.
ReplyDeletehttp://carrie-me.blogspot.com
I like the credibility points--what a cool idea!
ReplyDeleteThis advice is something I am thinking about right now. I have just two more chapters before I get to do the "fun" revision stuff, and I have a sneaking suspicion that this is an area where I will need to shake things up a bit. My heroine and hero need to be pushed closer to the limits. Thanks for your kind words with respect to my recent blog, Laura. You always know exactly the right thing to say to make me feel better. It's been that way for over twenty years...
ReplyDeleteGreat advise about making things worse than readers can believe. I know I enjoy a great story that makes me wonder how the author can possibly rise her characters above the sticky situation she has placed them in.
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