What Makes Good Fiction?
This is a question that I've been burning to discuss for a long time. I'm taking time away from commissions to talk about it, because I don't think people give enough thought about this, and I think it's important to talk about.
I'm not going to waste any more time leading up to it, so here goes.
What makes good fiction are GOOD CHARACTERS.
Case in point: Catcher in the Rye. I hate this book. I hate this book with the fiery passion of 1,000 suns. And yet, according to 90 percent of the world at large, this book is considered a classic, and is forced down the throats of almost every high school student in the United States.
The crazy part is, despite having forced reading at school, I read so much anyway, it didn't matter- so being forced to read never bothered me. But I read this book, read it ahead of the class, even, and when I read the last word and set the book down, I tasted the horrid bite of bile at the back of my esophagus and, for the first time in my young, naive life I realized I had read an honest-to-god terrible book, a true stinker.
When I tried to talk about how terrible it was to my classmates, most of them looked at me in either disgust or confusion (I was in honors english because I was and still am a massive nerd), and a few of them even refused to talk to me for most of the day. When someone finally deigned to speak to me and explain why they liked it, they went on a long, rambling speech about the motifs, metaphors, and intent behind the book, how this character's life was ruined and how he went into a downward spiral after the death of his brother, and how his plight was something everyone could relate to.
And to that, I simply said, "Well, fine, but I don't care." He gave me that same look almost everyone else did that day, that strange mixture of puzzlement and mild disgust, and asked why I wouldn't care, if I even got the point behind the book, etc. etc. You know, the things everyone brings up when you say you don't like something.
You know what I replied with? I said, "I don't care because Holden Caulfield is fucking obnoxious."
This is the main problem with the book. Holden is so unlikeable, and so irredeemable, that when BJ Saladfingers tries to say "but he's so SAD and so PATHETIC," I simply don't care. By that point, I was sighing in relief every time he stopped complaining about something (very rare, but very appreciated when it did happen), and, despite being told by nearly everyone that that was the whole point, that he was supposed to be unlikeable and a parody of the cynical, disenchanted attitude of youth at the time, all I saw was the author rocking back and forth on a porch rocker gleeking into a spittoon and shaking his fist at the stupid kids on his lawn.
Now, I could go on all day about how terrible Catcher in the Rye is, and how it's a pretentious bore, and how literally nobody should give a single damn about Holden's problems, but I write everything with a purpose in mind. Unlike FU Buttfingerer.
Characters are the only part of the story that 100 percent need to be good. If you write a story with generic bland characters but make everything else neat, you'll probably still please some people, but you won't make a lasting impression. If you write a story with limited scope, mediocre world-building, and so-so plotting, but make every single character vibrant, relatable, and interesting, your book will be millions of times better than someone who spent years building a world full of interesting cultures and languages and history only to have the main characters be boring to travel with (with some exceptions, like the Boy in Pajamas style of writing, which I may get into in a later article) or otherwise insufferable.
i.e. It doesn't matter if you're traveling to Disneyland if Cousin Jimmy just puked into your shoes for the fiftieth time because getting carsick is part of his character arc.
Do you have any books you've read that do a good job depicting characters with realistic and interesting motivations? Do you think I'm a big fat dummy who needs to stop spamming steemit with his opinions and get back to work? Tell me what you think in the comments!
I read Catcher in the Rye in English and Chinese, and both times I hated it. I just couldn't stand the protagonist.
I think you're right that good fiction requires good characters. All actions in the story flow from the characters, and without believable characters a reader can invest in, the rest of the story falls flat.
Off the top of my head, I love Barry Eisler's John Rain series, Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon series, Larry Correia's Grimnoir Chronicles and Son of the Black Sword, Jim Butcher's Dresden Files and Alera series. They combine charismatic characters, intelligent worldbuilding, tight plotting, and superb tradecraft.
I haven't read Correia's Grimnoir Chronicles just yet, but I'm a massive fan of his Monster Hunter International series, read nearly every book in it. I also really need to read the Dresden Files, another series I've heard a lot of good things about. I'll also put the other books on my reading list. It's kind of hard to keep up on reading, however, when you read for a living every day. Currently I'm working on reading Francis of the Filth because one of my friends gifted me the ebook on Amazon, I'll let you know how that one goes.
The Grimnoir Chronicles are pretty good. Well worth a read
Can't recommend Dresden highly enough. I burned through all the extant novels (though not the short stories yet) over the course of the summer before last, and then got severely bummed that another installment was not immediately forthcoming. Still the characters and their development is expertly done.
Some of the best character development I've ever read is in a fantasy series written by Jacqueline Carey - Kusihel's Dart is the first in the trilogy.
The TLDR is young girl sold into servitude as a courtesan, and it is written from the first person - incredible cross of development, suspense, and coming of age.
Definitely a NSFW plotline, though.
I might have to check that one out...it sounds like an intriguing premise. As far as character development goes, I think one of the best I've read is The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb. The story is quite slow to build, but is one of the best I've read in a long while. It's about a teacher caught up in the shootings at Columbine, who nearly died and had to hide in a closet, listening to students she knew dying left and right. She survived, but had to deal with the aftermath and psychological damage for years afterwards. The story is told from the perspective of her husband.
Very sad, but I think it's worth a read.
Have you read Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes? Not the "novel", but the short story? I have always thought of it as a brilliant depiction of literal character development. Again, written from the first person, I think its a fantastic read.
I have. Loved the short story, one of my favorites of all time, actually. Another very interesting story with good characters is Into the Quake Zone. I forget who wrote it, but it's a good sci-fi story written in a classic noir style.
We're going to get along just fine! Gave you a follow, keen to see your future musings - first time I've scrolled through "new" in a long while and found something engaging, original, and with audience participation, the three key elements for being successful on Steemit!
Well, thank you very much! I saw your follow earlier, and followed you right back. I try to post at least once or twice a day, normally 1 blog or opinion piece and/or one story/poem.
I'm glad to have found someone who shares my thoughts on the world of literature. I'll certainly save some upvotes for your posts, small that they may be. Thanks for reading!
Consistency is key. Quality will eventually shine through the crap the platform can seem filled with sometimes!
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I'm right there with you, man. I never read Catcher, but everything I've heard about it just makes me never want to.
Of course, it's always nice when an author takes the time to plot out their world meticulously and has vivid, awesome characters, but the world can honestly take a backseat. That's one of the reasons I like the movie In The Name Of The King so much. Apart from the star-studded cast (almost none of whom will actually admit to being in that movie), I know nothing about Dungeon Siege. But the characters are so vibrant and alive and well-acted that it just draws me in every time.
Which is particularly shocking given that Uwe Boll directed it, but everyone gets at least one really good story, I suppose.
If you dig through enough piles of shit, you always eventually hit a gold nugget, however small. That's why Michael Bay directed/wrote one of the best and well-known commercials of all time (the original "got milk" commercial) and yet produces a lot of flaming garbage nearly exclusively.
But yeah, Catcher in the Rye actually IS a book you need to read. Not because it's good, because it really objectively isn't, but because it perfectly describes the precise antithesis to the pulp-rev movement and gives a frightening look into what the future would look like without superversive fiction.
I honestly don't know if I have the stomach for it. I know it's a stunning example of how not to write an entertaining book, but I have enough examples of entertaining fiction to keep me interested. Not only that, but I've also read plenty of litfic nonsense, even a bunch masquerading as scifi/fantasy/adventure fiction, so I know exactly what that world looks like. It's a horrifying place, and one I'm personally working to move us away from as far as possible.
#NoMoreBoringStories
I'm right there with you, I hate Catcher.
My issue with characters has been taking the fully fleshed out character in my head, and making the reader care as much about him as I do without giving him his own book
It's easier to make the damned horse likable than it is for me to strike that proper balance where a companion is fleshed out but not taking me off on a rambling tangent.
One way you can do this is to use dialogue and speech mannerisms to quickly identify their personality. what slang do they use? How do they react to things?
Basically, it's easier to think of your characters as THOUGH they were real people, not necessarily a DnD character sheet. Think, "well, why does Hero McSlaysALot want to kill the dragon? Ok, he wants the princess, but why is he doing it beyond that? Is it out of the kindness of his heart overall, or for more selfish reasons?" etc., and then whenever you get a chance to let your character's inner voice and mannerisms shine through, you let it.
Using other people you have met (including the mannerisms you yourself have) is another great way to flesh out a character and make them real, because you already met this person and know how they react to certain events. Just adapt them to the situation at hand, and work from there.
If the character is realistic and sympathetic, or at least understandable and coherent, as long as you let their true self shine through on occasion through dialogue and action (without revealing everything about them), your reader will be able to get behind them.
This, of course, ties in to "show don't tell" quite a bit, letting your characters breathe and go at their own pace. This can be hard if you really have a passion for these characters, but if you let them progress and turn into lifelike representations of themselves, and use fight scenes or internal conflict to intrigue the audience in the meantime, you will have a much better chance of striking the right chord with your audience.
Hopefully this wasn't too dull for you to read through, I really need to condense my words down in these posts. Thanks for reading and commenting, and I hope you found this useful!
Not dull at all, thanks for the reply. I'm still getting my fiction legs under me; my usual writing is legal which, as you may imagine, is not at all the way you want to go about writing an engaging character.