Why Do I Write?

For the connections it gives,

The emotion it stirs.

As hope rises and tears fall.

Laughter joins us and evil is defeated.

The oceans that keep us apart

Are easy for words to cross.

Heroes become more than something imagined in our minds.

The world can be changed by friendship and love.

The minds and hearts of readers can change.

With that change, actions done will be better for all.

The many will become one.

Thus the world will become a better place. 

A Great Hero is Destine to Suffer.

Here we are at the end of The Flaws You Expect with a Tragic Hero! Part one is Life's Full of Expectations and part two is The Worse Flaw is a Tragic Flaw! Naturally, you have read both and are now ready for me to get to the point. A tragic hero is a person of noble birth/potentially heroic qualities. They are fated by the Gods/other supernatural force to doom/destruction/or the very least great suffering. It's sad that if you're a tragic hero the minor punishment is great suffering.

But with that definition out of the way let’s talk about getting the hero of a tragic story to suffer. That suffering involves...character development. Now the hero of the story needs both good and bad qualities about them. This makes them feel more like a real person. The goal of the author is to have a simple and complex hero. The reader should be able to explain the main character in a few short sentences but have them be complex enough to drive the story. A tragic hero needs to be relatable while the main character in a teenage drama story does not. (Because who really relates to the teens in those books?)

A tragic hero has different effects on the author than they do for the reader. The obvious difference is the fact that the author is the "parent" of the book and the reader is taking the book on a "date".  An author puts a part of themselves in the story they write, so the main character is dear to them. So when the main character is a tragic hero, there is a stronger attachment because their child is suffering. That's why there are some characters that only the author can love. The reader can feel a wide range of emotions towards the tragic hero. But indifference is probably one the author doesn't want them to feel.

Before the story ends the tragic hero's biggest flaw has to trip them up. The reason for this is because a supernatural force (the author) makes sure the hero developed this flaw. The reader has to be able to figure out that this flaw is the reason why the tragic hero is going to suffer. My goal would be to make the reader see either a bit of themselves or those close to them in the tragic hero. And of course, watch as they suffer and the other characters that are around get dragged into the madness. Creating that connection with the reader is important.  After all, I do love drama, don't you?

But what does the reader want when it comes to the fall of the tragic hero? If I had to guess, that the story doesn't suck. No reader wants to be bored by the story and certainly not by the main character. This is why people are such picky book readers. (I should know because I'm picky with books.) As a reader, if you're going to be brought down by a book it should be because the story moved you; not because it was badly written. A book that does that for you is purely up to your taste in literature.

That's it for this post. It's a short one but any longer and I would be repeating things that I'd said in the first two posts of the miniseries. Be sure to Google+ and recommend this blog to anyone who would be interested in it. I update regularly and would like to hear what you have to say in the comments section because I do read all the comments. I hope that you liked this post. As for the next miniseries, they will be short stories. The next post on my blog will be a writing prompt. What that prompt is I have no idea, but whatever it is I’ll be sure to add the title to the Prompt page. 

Prompts and Miniseries Are Getting A Makeover!!!

Hello and welcome dear readers! If you are a returning reader to this blog thank you for coming back and if you're new I hope that you'll stick around. I want to change up two elements of my blog. As you can see from the title of this post those two elements are the prompts and miniseries. The writing prompts are now going to be poems and short stories that only take up a page or less. Miniseries are no longer going to be just me explaining different elements of writing. Instead, miniseries are also going to be short stories that take up more than one page.  But each post is still getting a silly title because I do love giving them funny titles. The reason for the makeover is because I want to make my blog better. So making it better is me writing more because you can't become an author if you don't write. With that part three of The Flaws, You Expect with a Tragic Hero will be up soon. Bye!

Endless Waiting

Unclear and unfocused thoughts,

Trapped in negative emotions.

I can't seem to chase away the bad thoughts.

All I can do is sit around.

I'm waiting for someone,

But I can't remember who.

I'm waiting so long...

I'm waiting for someone.

My fingers tremble from anxiety.
I can no longer feel my feet.
My very soul seems like it's frozen.
Chasing away any bad thoughts is not an option.

I'm waiting so long...
But I can't remember who.
I'm waiting for someone,
But do I even know who?
I'm waiting so long...

Courage is something I no longer have,
All I can do is look back.
But it's not like I can go back.
My face is starting to feel numb.
Anxiety is the only thing that I know.

I'm waiting for someone.
I'm waiting so long.
My feet are frozen.
Hands can do nothing but tremble.

My face is now numb.
My soul isn't warm.
I lost all my courage.

I'm waiting for...
I'm waiting...
I'm...

Stuck with an afterimage of myself.
It does nothing,
For I can't go back.
Someone will one day come.

But do I even know who?
I'm waiting for someone,
I'm waiting so long...
And yet no one comes.
But do I even know who?

Does it even matter now?
I've frozen over,
Waiting for someone who can't even come.
After all, I've given up on myself.
I'm waiting...

The Worse Flaw is a Tragic Flaw!

It's time to finally talk about tragic flaws! But if you have not already, please read The Flaws You Expect with a Tragic Hero and Life's Full of Expectations first before you read part two of this three-part miniseries. If you are a regular reader of this blog you know that I've been skipping out in explaining fully what a tragic flaw is. The reason is that I want to do an entire post on the subject. And here is my chance to finally do that. First thing first, what is a tragic flaw? A tragic flaw is a weakness of a character that leads to their downfall.  So now that we got that out of the way it's time for me to rant.

As I had stated in different posts that developing the characters of a story is important and an author should never do it halfheartedly. When the characters of a story are created they need flaws that fit with the type of person they are. These flaws also don't have to be traits that are viewed negatively either.  An example of a common negative trait would be cockiness. On the flip side kindness is a positive trait that can be worked into being a tragic flaw. How you go about this depends on the writer.  Common traits that lead to a character's downfall are:

• Revenge
• Lust for power
• Depression
• An unjust government
• Love
• Pride
• Greed
• A lust for war
• Trusting those who will cause you harm
• Going mad
• Not being able to figure out what you want in life
• Being a liar
• Being two-faced

Of course, the examples I just gave are just a few from the top of my head. A character can have a number of these traits that can be manipulated by the author. A tragic flaw is the one damning trait that leads to the characters' misfortune.

As I stated in Life's Full of Expectations traditional tragedies were about people of high status. Their downfall comes about through different elements that are unavoidable. The reason for their unavoidable ending is because of fate. Fate (the author) brings characters with different agendas and conflicting personalities to a setting where tensions are high. This brings out the worse in the characters and allows them to fight for whatever their cause is until there is only one left standing. The chaotic energy that is unleashed through the actions of the character makes the story memorable. And whoever is left is only a broken reflection of themselves with little to no hope of being fixed.

The people who manage to still be alive at the end of a tragedy are important. At least when they play a large role in the story. Their connection to that main character whether it was positive or negative matters. These characters are what is left when hell has finally left the stage. Those that are alive are the ones who have to fix the damage that was done. But more often in tragedies, the remaining characters are just meant to live with the trauma. The reader, in my opinion, must be able to feel how hollow the remaining characters are now. At least when they are written well.

The characters who died in the tragedy become the message that the author wants to tell the reader.  That message could be about how greed will lead to your downfall. Trusting everyone without thought can lead to serious conquests. Or that sometimes you just can't help being in the wrong place at the wrong time. When a character dies is also important along with when they die in the story. If a character dies at the beginning of the story it is usually to raise the tension of the characters. If characters are dying in the middle of the story that is the height of the conflict. Finally,  if there are character deaths near or at the end of the story it could mean that most of the major players of the story's conflict have lost their power and status.

The characters in a tragedy need to be engaging. Their goals, relationships, and eventual end have to keep the readers invested. It helps when the driving forces of the story are interesting. The reader should probably be able to tell what is the reason for the fall of a character. The ones that are the most important need to be active in the conflict of the story.  No one wants to see a duck sitting in the middle of a battlefield.

Characters need to be active. That doesn't mean they need to start a fistfight or anything but spreading lies and tricking others into doing their dirty work is being an active player in the story. The use of knowledge and social status can be useful tools for characters as well.

A tragedy's job is to be entertaining to the reader. A reader should want to view the story repeatedly and look at it from different angles and see elements of the story in a different light. Now does that mean the author has to continually think of different ways their story can be interpreted? No, that's something the reader does themself. That's why everyone can see and read the same movie or book and have different opinions about them. This is a good if not troublesome thing. Because negative elements of a book can lead to being read as positive. Which is something that you most likely don't want to happen with a tragedy.

Something that I think is important to note is that the characters' flaws are what makes them relatable. A characters' success is what makes them respectable. I wanted to state this because no one can honestly relate to someone who on paper is perfect. We all have problems that are and aren't worth a large amount of drama. Stories in a sense, comment on these problems. The problems in the world that an author takes issue with are retold in a controlled and structured story. Conversations that are not normally had at the table can be brought up and exposed. Things that are not a concern for one group of people can be shown to them. The issues of the world can be made to look different than themselves in reality. Our flaws can be simplified and put in a narrative that can lead to the characters' downfall.

Tragedies can teach us many things about ourselves and the world we live in. When they're written well that is. Giving characters tragic flaws helps with making the story believable because we can't see fate pull the strings that connect the characters. But we can see the results of what flaws do to the characters' relationships and livelihood. And with that, we end this conversation. Don't forget to Google+ this post and come back for the third and last part of this miniseries. Also, check out earlier posts on my blog and leave a comment because I do read all the comments that you post on this blog.