-
The Power of Crazy
In his magnificent book, The Breakout Novelist, legendary agent Donald Maass emphasizes the power of crazy. He says he loves crazy, and wants crazy and he wants you to bring it. Because he is bored with books that aren’t crazy enough. Channel your inner freak. Never forget the following words in the midst of your outline and your journey. If you have ever thought you were completely mad and out of your mind, then Donald Maass suggests that you have exactly the secret spice a great writer needs.
“Think about it. Hackneyed plots and stereotypical characters don’t work. We brush them off. Stories that stretch our minds and characters who challenge our views of ourselves … ah, those are the ones we remember. They are the stuff of which classics are made. So start by making sure that you put yourself into your novel: your views, your hurts, your questions, your convictions, your crazy-weird take on it all. Give all that to your characters, or simply give it to yourself when you write. You’ve kept it inside for too long. It is time to let it out, and to let it make a noise. If you are worried that your plot will feel calculated or contrived to your readers, don’t. Actually, the more you let your passionate self inform your novel, the more it will strike your readers with a moral force.”
Maass, Donald. The Breakout Novelist: Craft and Strategies for Career Fiction Writers (p. 240)
-
10 Replies
-
Thanks for this. I actually have this book on my shelf, unread. Go figure.
-
Valerie,
Let me know what you think of it!
🙂
-
-
You’re right, David – Lisbeth Salander from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series, and Susannah from Stephen King’s The Gunslinger epic series are two such characters that absolutely stick with me: a female assassin with Asperger’s, and a time-and-dimension-travelling civil rights activist with no legs (they were severed at the thighs when she was pushed in front of a train by an enemy) and multiple personalities. What’s not to love?! 😀
Me? In my novel I’m seeking to create a narrative that will de-demonise a woman who rejects motherhood to a lovely 9 yr old daughter and marriage to a genuinely good guy. I’m frustrated by the conventional societal view that everyone ‘ought’ to gravitate eventually towards marriage (or its equivalent) and procreation, and everyone who DOESN’T want that is possibly self-absorbed, or emotionally retarded/cold, or in denial in some way, or just plain nasty. As I said, I want to ‘de-demonise’ people (especially women) who openly reject that path, and offer a possible solution for anyone who (like my MC) has realised only after embarking on the ‘usual’ course for a few years that it’s definitely not for them.
-
Emmaloo,
Cool. I have one rule for both real people and characters, and this does it for me. Two easy questions.
Are you a pompous, angry, self-righteous, blowhard know-it-all?
I can already tell that I don’t like you. (Unless you are the antagonist and a car is going to fall on your head.)
Are you anything else BUT a pompous, angry, self-righteous, blowhard know-it-all?
I can already tell that I do like you. In fiction and in real life.
Aside from that, almost anything goes for me.
😃
-
Emmaloo
I like your MC immediately! Although I have gravitated towards marriage (twice) I rejected motherhood from the age of 21 and have never had a single regret. I have on sometimes been congratulated on my decision, but on more occasions I have been castigated as selfish, criticised and generally verbally beaten up for my decision. My decision was easy, but I can understand and identify with those who realised much later in life.
At the moment it seems that the only way characters can show “likeability” is by loving their families and being kind to small animals, which is a lazy way of thinking that translates to thoughtless writing and I have now realised that I have fallen into that trap!
So thanks for making me think and, more importantly, thanks for writing a MC with whom I finally have something in common.
-
Hi Rita, and thank you for the vote of confidence in my MC, and I am so happy to learn I was able to offer you some food for thought with regards your own work.
I have a few female friends like you who have opted not to have kids and who lead full, happy and rewarding lives – go figure! 😂 I have also read a lot of forum posts from women who have come to the realisation far too late (tragically for them and their families) that they are really not cut out for motherhood: they are trapped in a life they hate, and are invariably asking through these forums for advice on what they should do. They are not ‘bad’ people at all – they’re just fundamentally unhappy, and they deserve to be otherwise. This was a big part of the inspiration for my novel trilogy idea: to try and explore what the palatable and positive options might be for someone like that.
Do you write women’s/commercial fiction? If so, I have recently started a group for that, and you’re welcome to share and read excerpts of members’ work in there if you’d like to give and receive some feedback.
Emma
-
-
-
Im going to check out that book. Thank you !
-
My main protagonist is a disgusting little thing, willfully destructive, manners of a troglodyte and smells. Hope she’s not too much like me.
-
😂
-
-
Maass also wrote a book on the emotional craft of fiction which I have found really good – a focus on the emotional journey of the MC, the character’s emotional arc
