In 2008, I discovered how
little I knew about writing after hearing children’s writer, Lin Oliver speak
at a convention hosted by the Minnesota Society of Children’s Book Writers and
Illustrators. To learn more – and to satisfy my natural tendency to “teach stuff”,
I started a series of essays taking the wisdom of published writers and
then applying each “nugget of wisdom” to my own writing. During the six years
that followed, I used the advice of a
number of published writers (with their permission) and then applied the
writing wisdom of Lin Oliver, Jack McDevitt, Nathan Bransford, Mike Duran,
Kristine Kathryn Rusch, SL Veihl, Bruce Bethke, and Julie Czerneda to an
analysis of my own writing. Together these people write in genres broad and deep,
and have acted as agents, editors, publishers, columnists, and teachers. Today
I add to that list, Lisa Cron who has worked as a literary agent,
TV producer, and story consultant for Warner Brothers, the William Morris
Agency, and others. She is a frequent speaker at writers’ conferences, and a
story coach for writers, educators, and journalists. Again, with permission, I
am using her article, “A Reader’s
Manifesto: 15 Hardwired Expectations Every Reader Has for Every Story” (2/16/18
http://blog.creativelive.com/essential-storytelling-techniques/)
Point number 8 in “A
Reader’s Manifesto”: “The
reader expects the protagonist will have a longstanding
misbelief that has kept her from easily achieving that goal.”
This is a tough one
for me to figure out because belief is so deeply ingrained in us, that even
atheists seem to have trouble after dragging themselves free from anything not
made of matter, ie, “the divine”.
Case to point that
I can support with countless others: aliens.
Astrophysicist Carl
Sagan had no patience with those who believe in any sort of invisible deity: “How is it that hardly any major religion has
looked at science and concluded, ‘This is better than we thought! The Universe
is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant?’
Instead they say, ‘No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay
that way.’ A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the
Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of
reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths.” Stephen Hawking
wasn’t interested in God, either: “‘We have finally found something that
doesn’t have a cause, because there was no time for a cause to exist in,’
Hawking wrote. ‘For me this means that there
is no possibility of a creator, because there is no time for a creator to
have existed in.’”
Yet, neither man
has any trouble believing in aliens – beings who exist solely in the imagination of Humans. Those of you who read my blog, know I
write science fiction that includes aliens no matter how intellectual the
person believing in them is. But when pushed (I teach a class called Alien
Worlds for gifted and talented kids from 9-16), I have to say that the science
teacher in me; the one that insists on EVIDENCE to support a position has no
response other than, “There is no evidence anywhere that there is life ANYWHERE
but on Earth. None. Nothing. Nowhere. No one has anything. THERE IS NO EVIDENCE
OF LIFE ON OTHER WORLDS.”
Yet these avowed
atheists had no trouble writing: “If it is just us, seems like an awful waste
of space.” – Contact, screenplay by Carl Sagan; also “Contrary
to the popular belief that aliens would be destructive to mankind, Sagan
advocated that aliens would be friendly and good-natured.” https://www.famousscientists.org/carl-sagan/
Stephen Hawking said:
“‘One day, we might receive a signal from a planet like this,’…referring
to the potentially habitable alien planet Gliese 832c. ‘But we should be wary
of answering back. Meeting an advanced civilization could be like Native
Americans encountering Columbus. That didn't turn out so well,’ he added…” https://www.livescience.com/62015-stephen-hawking-quotes.html
So, if my protagonist
has some sort “longstanding misbelief”, and the reader agrees with that misbelief, then will they follow the story through to its
conclusion? To THEM, the conclusion is foregone.
What if the
character has a misbelief that the readers violently disagrees with, will they
assume that it was that “misbelief that has kept her from easily achieving [her]
goal” and throw the story aside, assuming that it was all propaganda, so not worth
the reader’s time of day or effort?
How much leeway
does a writer have when giving the protagonist a misbelief? For some people, “…are
concerned for the wellbeing of all, are committed to diversity, and respect
those of differing yet humane views. We work to uphold the equal enjoyment of
human rights and civil liberties in an open, secular society and maintain it is
a civic duty to participate in the democratic process and a planetary duty to
protect nature’s integrity, diversity, and beauty in a secure, sustainable
manner.” Others, “We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus
Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For
everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” Either
would be guaranteed to put off some number of readers.
Or is Cron just
talking about something like, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a
single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” Even
so, I suppose that someone, somewhere would find that statement objectionable.
Some would find it objectionable in the extreme; or biased and homophobic…
And yet, PRIDE AND
PREJUDICE continues to be popular and the plot foundational to literature
written in English (possibly in other languages, but I could only find PRIDE, PREJUDICE,
AND OTHER FLAVORS (Sonali Dev), so there’s never been a groundswell of hatred
and rejection of the books, so maybe my thoughts are absurd.
Any thoughts?
Source: https://scientificliteracymatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/carl-sagan-1024x576.jpg,
https://www.livescience.com/63854-stephen-hawking-says-no-god.html,
https://americanhumanist.org/what-is-humanism/manifesto3/,
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+3%3A+21-25&version=NLT,
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/5882-it-is-a-truth-universally-acknowledged-that-a-single-man,
https://www.amazon.com/Sonali-Dev/e/B00JOSJQFO/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1
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