Category Archives: Writing Tips

Savvy Saturday – How to be biased

Academics, Writing Tips

Part of being a writer is exploring the human experience as it is truly lived. Even in a fantasy or science fiction setting, one’s characters need to feel real. We all know this. It’s a truism, a proverb, easier to say glibly than to actually carry out in one’s writing. Why? For one thing, human beings are complex. Part of this complexity is the fact that we aren’t always rational. We make biased choices based on feelings and heuristics – rules of thumb – that can lead us to make different decisions when presented with exactly the same data. Moreover, our brains work very differently than we often think they do. We plan one thing and do another. We’re swayed by emotion and situational characteristics and the way questions are worded. Even our memories are malleable.

Today’s post features just a few findings about the irrationality of the human brain that I’ve recently studied for my PhD classes. Whether you’re a writer or simply an interested reader, I hope you find them useful. Personally, I know I’m going to keep these facts in mind and use them to make my characters more complex and realistic.

Finding 1: People hate losing. (Prospect theory, endowment effect)

loss

Which would you rather have? A one percent chance of winning a thousand dollars, or a $5 dollar bill handed to you right now? Most people would take the $5, even though statistically, the one percent chance of $1000 is “worth more.” The opposite, however, holds for losses. Human beings don’t like to lose. Most people would rather have an 80% chance of losing $4000 than a certainty of losing $3000, even though again, statistically, the first option is worse for your pocketbook (Kahneman and Tversky 1979).

This phenomenon is known as “loss aversion.” People really, really don’t like to give up what they have, far more than they want to gain something that they don’t have. This then translates into the “status quo bias,” where what you have right now is valued more than any change, even a change for the better. Similarly, once you own something, that thing suddenly “gains value” in your opinion beyond what it was worth moments before. People who are given a pen or a coffee mug in psychology experiments consistently refuse to sell it at the “market price” just a few minutes later, and instead set a much higher price on it than it is worth. Once an item is owned by you, you don’t want to give it up even for a “fair” amount of money that you could spend on something that you’d probably like more than the item you were given.

How does this transfer to the world of fiction writing? Easily. Threaten your character with the loss of something he/she values, and watch him move heaven and earth to keep that threat from being realized. Is your story set in a dystopian world? Instead of promising a character riches and luxury for doing some nefarious deed, simply have the rulers give the character a better life – new clothes, good food, etc. – then threaten to send him back to his former servitude unless he cooperates. Far more nefarious. Far more effective.

Finding 2: The way a choice is framed will influence what decision is made (Framing)

framingA company is giving bonuses to teams based on the number of working ideas they contributed to the company over the past year. One manager reads about a fantastic team that proposed 10 ideas, and 7 of them worked wonderfully, making significant profit for the company. Unsurprisingly, she approves a bonus for this team. A different manager reads about a team that also proposed 10 ideas, but 3 of them were abject failures, and resulted in significant loses for the company. Unsurprisingly, this team does not get a bonus.

Except…these teams are identical (Dunegan 1993).

Framing an issue in a positive or a negative light makes a huge difference in how people respond to it. Giving a city a vaccine that will save 60% of its population from a devastating plague (but not save the other 40% from certain death) is a much better option in people’s minds than giving a city an experimental drug that will kill 40% of its members but keep 60% safe from an impending doom. Having a dealer apologetically not give you a $10 discount on a $100 item because you aren’t a club member is much better than having a dealer apologetically charge you an additional $10 fee on a $90 item because you aren’t a club member.

If your character wants to manipulate someone, then, the easiest way to do it is to focus attention on the (true) negative or positive aspects of a choice. For instance, knowing that a magic sword can kill ogres, giants, and trolls is very different from knowing that it can’t kill dragons. This is also a way to have characters argue with each other very effectively. If one person sees only the benefits of making a certain choice, and the other sees only the negatives, they will be very unlikely to come to an agreement even if they have all the same facts.

Finding 3: Learning, memory, and experience aren’t all they’re cracked up to be (Experiential learning)

elephant“This ain’t my first rodeo,” an old Western hero says, giving the newcomer a withering glare. “I’ve done seen a fair share in my time, and I can tell you like it is.”

That’s all very well, but that old hero’s memories might be playing more tricks on him than he’d like to believe. We like to trust memories and our own experience more than what other people tell us – memory is vivid, supposedly objective, and engages all our senses, whereas learning from others is more distant and is possibly biased. Unfortunately, our own memories are just as fallible, and sometimes even more misleading, than what we learn from others.

Of course, we all know that we find what we expect to find. Humans are incredibly good at confirming things that may or may not be true. This is called the confirmation bias, and happens all the time. We come up with a hypothesis that something is true, then we look to see if the data support our hypothesis, rather than seeking to disconfirm it. In writing language, we see if the world makes sense given the story we’ve told ourselves, rather than looking to see if there are plot holes.

“I’m thinking of a rule for picking numbers,” we tell someone. “With this rule, I’ve picked the numbers 2, 4, 12, and 16, as well as others. You may ask me whether any particular number fits my rule, and when you’re certain about what the rule is, make your guess.” Our poor confirmation-bias target guesses 14, and is told yes. He guesses 20, and is told yes again. He guesses 110, and is told yes a third time. He confidently states that our rule is any number that can be divided by two. But he’s wrong. Our rule was any positive or negative whole number. Whoops.

With enough effort, people can be trained to avoid confirmation bias. It’s much harder to avoid the effects of faulty memory. Many of us have heard about the experiment where two sets of people see the same video of a car crash. One group then is asked to judge how fast the cars were going when they “bumped” one another, while another is asked how fast they were going when they “smashed into” one another. A while later, both groups are asked whether or not they saw broken glass in the video. (There was no broken glass shown.) The group that had been given the “smashed” language were far more likely to report having seen broken glass, and remember it just as certainly as the other group remembered not seeing broken glass.

Similarly, in the world of advertising, people who were given test orange juice – actually vinegar, water, and orange flavoring – obviously rated it as tasting horrible. Half of them, though, were then shown an advertisement that talked about how good, fresh, and wonderful (like drinking an orange through a straw!) that brand of juice tasted. A while later, the two groups were asked to again rate their juice experience. The ones who had seen the ad after drinking the vinegar-water rated it as tasting better, and in fact, tasting like drinking an orange through a straw (Braun 1999).

Thinking about your writing, what do your characters remember – for sure! – that just isn’t so? What decisions do your characters make where the facts seem to fit what they believe, but only because they didn’t look too hard to prove themselves wrong? When do your characters rely on their memories and their expertise because it’s just easier, even when they really shouldn’t?

(For that matter, when do you?)

Thinking through these questions and writing characters with realistic cognitive biases will not only make your story more gripping, it will make your characters, even the non-human ones, more realistic. For instance, an elephant’s memory – though vivid – could be completely inaccurate. And dragons, as we all know, have an extreme aversion to loss. So put your biases to work, and make your characters human.

Savvy Saturday – Branding for Novelists 101

Academics, Writing Tips

What’s the hardest part about being a novelist?

For most people, at least according to the all-knowing Internet, the hardest part about being a writer isn’t coming up with good ideas, having the determination and patience to finish a book, going through the painstaking process of editing, or even finding a publisher. No, most novelists agree that the hardest part about being an author is…

Marketing.

Yep. In today’s world, even very successful authors with top publishing houses are expected to do a significant amount of work in marketing their books. You can find hundreds of articles and blog posts about how important it is to have an online platform and get the word out about your writing. Even the best book in the world, after all, won’t sell if no one knows it exists.

What many writers aren’t aware of, however, is something that I’ve learned as a Ph.D. student in – you guessed it – marketing. And that’s the importance of, and how to create, a personal brand. That is, a brand for you as a writer.

For those of you who haven’t taken a marketing class in a long time (yes – “never” is a long time), a brand is far more than a label on a soup-can. According to the textbook that I’m currently teaching from, a brand is “a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of these, that identifies the products or services of one seller or group of sellers and differentiates them from those of competitors” (Armstrong and Kotler 2013).

image_brand

The two key points here are that the brand identifies what you’re selling, and that it differentiates what you’re selling. If you have a brand that does this, it will have what’s known as brand equity, or value. For a writer, brand equity means that your readers will understand what your books are typically like, how they’re different from other people’s books, and – most importantly – they’ll be more likely to purchase your book if they know that you wrote it, and they’ll pay more for your book than they would for a book with an equivalent title, plot, and cover design if it were written by someone else.

So how do you get a powerful brand with lots of brand equity? Well, we can start with the easy part. For any author, just like for any public figure or celebrity, your brand is going to be your name/pseudonym. Unless you happen to have a very common name, or share a name with a famous author, it won’t be hard to use that brand to identify what you’re selling. There aren’t any other A.L. Phillips’s out there who write books. (There is, unfortunately, an “Al Phillips” who runs a cleaning business, and eats up my Google results. However, people are unlikely to confuse our services.)

The more difficult part of branding is getting your name – and thus people’s perceptions of your writing – to be seen as different from what your competitors offer.

books_image
So many brands! How does your set itself apart?

 

But how do you do it?

This is where having a bit of marketing knowledge comes in. The fundamental thing your brand needs to communicate is what unique value or benefit your customers (your readers) will gain from the goods/services you offer. For writers, this means that you have to consider who your target market is, and what common threads tie over across your books that will appeal to this market.

For instance, do you appeal to the hard sci-fi crowd who want books that are technically accurate and plausible? Are your books targeted at Anglophiles who love the grandeur and culture of Regency England? Do you target middle grade readers who need a fast-paced story, readers who want a “clean” book without cursing or adult material, or lovers of historical romance? Is your writing funny, gritty, beautiful, fast-paced, well-researched, honest, down-to-earth, or something else yet? The most successful brands are those that carry value across specific products – in a writer’s case, across specific books that he/she has written.

In my case, I write clean fantasy and science fiction stories that stem from a love of culture and sociology. There’s a lot besides those elements that goes into successful writing, of course. Round characters, technical accuracy, gripping plots, etc. are all necessary, but those wouldn’t distinguish my books from any other good books on the market. When I advertise my writing, I say that it’s important to me that my worlds, no matter how fantastical, have to be well thought out and feel real. I also say that it’s important that advanced pre-teen readers (or adults who prefer clean books) should be able to read good, rich stories written at a high reading level, yet still without inappropriate content. Knowing those things about my books helps potential readers know more about what they’re getting into, and gives them an assurance that future books I write will also follow this mold.

The classic way to formalize this unique value that you offer, and to wrap your own head around it better, is to create a brand position statement, or a value proposition statement. This generally follows the format of, “For [my target market], [my brand name] is a [product category] that [unique point of difference].” In my case, restating the paragraph above, “For young and adult readers alike, A.L. Phillips offers entertaining, clean adventures set in culturally rich, realistic fantasy and science fiction worlds.” Writing a brand position statement will help you tell other people what you do, and will also help you focus on what you do best.

The next part of developing your personal brand – and marketing it – is to conduct a SWOT analysis. Standing for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, a SWOT analysis is a classic business approach for understanding what a company/brand/individual does well, struggles with, what external factors are helping it/him/her, and what external factors the company/brand/individual needs to carefully monitor and be aware of. While a brand position statement is for everyone to see, your SWOT analysis is a way of helping you better understand who you are and how you fit into the larger market of writers. By understanding what you do well (and can focus on), what you do poorly (and should make allowances for, try to improve, or subcontract out), what opportunities you can take advantage of (for instance, local community events that you can be a part of, a market trend toward self-publishing or small-press publishing, or increased interest in young adult books), and what potential outside threats loom (for instance, increased competition, a bad market, decreased interest in vampire/werewolf books), you can plan for your brand’s future and maximize your chances of success.

A more detailed brand analysis would include identifying all of the common attributes that successful products in your area share that you need to have (e.g. strong characters, a good plot, good editing), describing your competitors’ brands, identifying what they’re uniquely good at and how they’re positioned, talking about how you’re distinct from these major players in the market, and so forth. But this is enough to get you started on creating a brand that is identifiable and differentiates you to your audience as the unique provider of value that you are. Good luck, and happy marketing!

If you’ve created a brand position statement that you’d like to share, or if you have questions or comments, leave a note below!

Savvy Saturday – Character Sketches

Academics, Writing Tips

Every good writer needs good, strong characters, right? Of course right! (Kudos for those of you who get that character reference.) The best, strongest characters in books are the ones that carry with them a semblance of reality. Even if the story is set on another planet or in a realm of dragons, even if the character is a mage or a serial killer, these are the characters you can interact with emotionally – because they reflect the way reality could be (at least, if reality worked the way the author says it does).

The best way to create “real” characters, then, is to understand people in this reality. Only then can you create characters who will be believable in a different setting. To help with that, this week’s post will give a few snapshots of real people and real encounters that I’ve had recently – sort of a “Humans of New York” style post, designed to give a look into the characters that inhabit the real world. I hope you find them interesting, and perhaps even inspiring for your own work!

 

First character: a girl from China in her mid-twenties. She has a round face and a quiet demeanor, wears an unobtrusive light brown sweater and dark pants, and her black hair is cut simple and straight at the shoulders. As she listens to the conversation, she nods and says “mm-hmm” every few seconds to show that she understands what is being said.

The topic of conversation is customer service in different cultures. “I have a funny story,” she says in accented English. With several starts, stops, and seconds spent searching for the right words, she manages to convey the following: a few years before, she had booked a flight on an American airline company that regularly flew between Chicago and Beijing. After she had scheduled her flight, another company also began flying that route. In response, the company with which this girl had booked her flight changed not just the time, but the day on which the plane in question was going to fly.

“Because my English is not so good, I called the Chinese help line to reschedule my flight, because I could not fly out another day,” she said. “They told me that it was my fault for not making plans, even though I could not know ahead of time that another company would start making flights from Beijing to Chicago. They said they would not change my flight, and if I wanted to change, I would have to pay a large fee and buy a new ticket.

“Eventually, I decided to call the American help line in English. When I talked with them, they said the scheduling was all their fault! And they told me they were so sorry for the inconvenience! It took just one hour, and they gave me a new flight on the right day, and I did not have to pay anything, and they were so nice. So I learned to always call the English language help line.”

 

Second character: a friendly, wide-eyed gentleman from India. With a short stature, a vivid teal polo shirt, thinning black-gray hair, and a wide smile, he is quick to jump into any conversation with enthusiastic comments.

Upon hearing that it is common practice for American stores to accept returned merchandise, he looks at me askance. “Is it?” he asks incredulously. “That is something I do not understand.”

“You can’t return anything in India?” I ask him.

“No, of course not!” he says, emphasizing his words with sharp, vehement hand gestures. “Not anything. You buy it, it is yours. You cannot let people return things. If you let one person return something, then everyone will return everything! It would be bad business.”

 

Third character: a trim, middle-aged Caucasian professor who wears striped polo shirts and khaki shorts in the middle of winter, has a well-groomed gray beard and short hair, and bounces into class at 9am to teach statistics and research design to undergraduate and graduate students. He grins constantly, talks in a half-shout, and peppers his lectures with stories of adventure in South America and a large smattering of four-letter words.

“If you’re interested in three-way factorial designs,” he says, his eyes lighting up, “I’m teaching a unit on it this summer. It’s seriously cool s**t. It covers all the ways you could possibly want to set up and run one of these little darlings and not f*** it up. Which you will if you aren’t careful. It’s my absolute favorite class to teach.” He pauses with a sheepish grin. “I say that about all my classes,” he admits. “Whichever one I’m teaching at the time is my favorite. They’re just all my darlings. Anyway! We were talking about two by two factorial designs…”

 

Do you know anyone like these characters? Have you ever experienced a similar situation to the ones above? Post about it in the comments!

Savvy Saturday – Thinking Across Cultures (4)

Academics, New stories, Writing Tips

In this series, I’ve been demonstrating how individuals from collectivist and individualist cultures react differently to similar stimuli. It’s been a fun writing prompt for me, and I hope it’s been fun for you to read as well. Today’s individualist/collectivist difference is attitude toward authority, and what kind of actions get rewarded by the narrative.

As a reminder, you can check out my first Thinking Across Cultures post for the writers’ guide to how these two types of cultures are different, then check out the second and third posts for the beginning of Kiwa and Tika’s adventures.

Kiwa:

The mountains were cold and terrible and so far from home. Kiwa shivered, as she had so often for the past three months, as Commander Shoto led them in single file along yet another steep twisting path that looked like it hadn’t been used for years by anyone but goats. They had yet to find any sign of the cursed raised or their cursed camp, but Shoto was confident that they would, and soon. “We are the Emperor’s Riders,” he reminded them every day. “We cannot fail.”

In spite of her exhaustion and half-frozen limbs, Kiwa believed him. What else could she do? Without faith in the Emperor, without faith in their commander and in each other, she and her comrades would have nothing. Would be nothing. No, they would find the raiders. Kiwa just hoped it would be soon, while they still had strength left to fight.

Suddenly, an arrow buzzed through the air in front of her and buried itself in a nearby bush. Kiwa yelled an alarm, drawing her bow and looking to Shoto.

“Mano, Woti, Doto, with me!” the young commander ordered, his voice thunder-strong with authority. “We’ll find them. Kiwa, Jani, Sano, stay here and draw their fire!”

Another two arrows hissed down from a gap in the cliff face. Kiwa saw and pointed; Jani and Sano followed her finger. “In the name of the Emperor, surrender yourselves!” Jani shouted up the mountain. An enraged cry in a foreign tongue came in response, along with three more arrows fired in quick succession. As the archers exchanged fire, Shoto and his three bladesmen disappeared up the trail.

“How many do you think?” Kiwa asked, firing an arrow of her own up toward the gap. Her aim was true, and cries of alarm came in return.

“Three, perhaps?” Sano guessed.

“Enough to tell us where their camp is,” Jani said. She cursed as another arrow zinged past her head. “Assuming that Shoto finds them before they shoot us all.”

“Raiders can’t shoot a yak at ten paces,” Sano assured her. “Three of them against three of us? They don’t stand a chance.”

“To the right!” Kiwa shouted, a sudden movement catching her eye. Sano spun and let loose an arrow – a man in rough skins plunged forward from his hiding place among the rocks above them. A moment later, a horn sounded, followed by a hail of arrows from two directions. They hit the rocks and dirt before and behind and all around them. One buzzed past Kiwa, and she felt a sudden pain in her ear. Next to her, Jani gasped in pain as one hit her in the leg.

“Six on the ridge there!” Sano shouted. “Fall back! Take cover!”

“No!” Kiwa shouted back. Now that Sano pointed the raiders out, Kiwa could see them. She ran forward, toward the mountain, zig-zagging as she had been taught as she closed distance. She fired up, toward the raiders raiders, which prompted a new storm of arrows. “Shoto told us to draw their fire!”

“Shoto didn’t know there were so many!”

“Less talking, more shooting!” Jani snapped. Blood ran down her leg, but she didn’t seem to notice. “Do your duty, Sano!” As she spoke, she snapped arrow after arrow from her bow. One of the raiders fell, then another. That left three that Kiwa could see.

Her mouth tight and her heart pounding in her ears, Kiwa fired again and again. She shot toward the crevice in the rock to their left, toward the ledge on their right, always moving, always making noise and drawing the attention of the raiders and trying not to think about the very real possibility that the next breath might be her last. To her left, she saw Sano yelling and firing, his voice quaking with fear but filled with passion nonetheless. The sight filled Kiwa with new bravery. If they died, they would die doing their duty.

And then the familiar battle-cry sounded on the wind: “For the Emperor!”

A new sound joined it, the clash of blades and the cries of death, and Kiwa cheered with her comrades. With renewed vigor, they fired toward the ridge and the last raiders standing there, leaving those in the cliff to Shoto and his deadly bladesmen.

The battle was over in just a few more minutes. Archers were no match for bladesmen, and raiders were no match for the riders of the Emperor. Kiwa’s heart swelled with pride as she, Sano, and a limping Jani joined Shoto up on the hidden ledge from which the raiders had attacked.

“Well done,” Shoto said, nodding to the three of them. “The archers were so fixed on you, they didn’t see us coming. Your devotion in the face of danger honors your families, your clan, and the Emperor.”

Though Kiwa carefully didn’t look at Sano, she could feel his discomfort. “We are all honored to serve you and the Emperor,” she said, bowing. Shoto nodded, and turned away.

Sano caught Kiwa’s eye, gratitude in his expression. She nodded back to him. There was no reason for the commander to know that Sano had questioned his orders on the field. They had done their duty, the battle was won, and that was all that mattered.

 

Tika:

The mountains of Ares V were cold and terrible, and a long way from Space Station Kronos. With every step along this miserable planet’s deserted peaks, Tika cursed her aching feet, her half-frozen limbs, and especially the blasted arms-smugglers who had picked this forsaken snowy peak as their base. Her mission was unfortunately clear: find and destroy the smugglers’ base of operations before they could find and destroy her ship. This was the third such mission she’d been sent on in as many months, and the first in which she’d been assigned a partner.

“Come on, Sanno,” Tika called over her shoulder, beckoning to the large-muscled munitions expert with her blaster. “I want to be out of here by dark.”

“Then you can haul the fireworks factory on your back,” Sanno retorted, picking his way through the mounds of snow that drifted around them in the wind. “I’m coming as fast as I can.”

Tika rolled her eyes. “Then make as fast as you can faster.” She glanced at her watch and picked up the pace. “I’m guessing we have four hours before their instruments notice our ship’s signal, and maybe fifteen minutes after that before they shut down operations. We need to get there before that.”

“Wait.” Sanno stopped and crossed his arms. “We’re going in by daylight?”

“I’m certainly not creeping around these icy ravines at night!”

“But our orders – ”

Tika told Sanno what he could do their orders. “The brass only care that we get the job done. And I don’t like sneaking around at night. Too many ways to fall down a rat-hole and die, and that’s in addition to getting slagged by friendly fire, or unfriendly fire. I prefer to see who I’m shooting at, thanks.”

“That’s not the way Commander Monson said we should approach –”

Tika sighed. “Is Commander Monson here? Did he have any idea when he gave us our briefing that the base was located on top of a blasted mountain? No. Because we just found that out when we scanned this miserable planet two hours ago. Do you know who sneaks around mountains at night? People with a death wish. Now let’s go. My blaster’s getting itchy for some action.”

Tika turned and shuffled onward through the snow. She listened hard and smiled to herself as she heard Sanno’s booted feet tramping along behind her. He wasn’t a bad guy, just a tad rigid. Tika pulled her binoculars from her fur-lined pocket – according to the ship’s computer, the base was located just south of their position, about another mile away.

Zap! The unmistakable sound of blaster fire made Tika drop her binoculars and shoulder her gun. “Sanno! Get down!”

The large man had already shrugged off his highly explosive pack and was fumbling for his sidearm.

Zap! Tika followed the shot with her eyes – the shooter was above them, in a narrow mountain crevice. Along with…Her eyes widened.

“New plan, Sanno,” she shouted. “Get ready to run!” She fired three shots in quick succession. The first hit the shooter in the chest. The second hit the equipment he had evidently been using. The third hit a pile of ice and snow just above them. The mountainside began to rumble, then shift.

“Did you just–”

“Less talking, more running!” Tika yelled, already moving. “We have an avalanche to worry about.”

Sanno ran. That didn’t stop him from sputtering his protests. “Why in blazes–”

“He was recording, blockhead! His friends are going to come check it out, and the less evidence we give them, the better. If they think he got hit by a freak avalanche, they won’t be expecting us. If we left him there, nice and neat for them to find, with shot-up or disabled transmission equipment, we’d be dead meat.”

Behind them, a roar of snow poured over the path that they had just taken.

“You know,” Sanno said, slowing down, “that’s actually pretty clever.”

Tika gave him a lopsided smile. “That’s why the brass recruited me for this job.” She patted her gun. “Well, that, and my eye with a blaster.”

“And your gentle spirit and humility,” Sanno noted wryly.

“Shut up,” Tika said. She shouldered her gun and pointed toward the camp. “We still have a base to take out. You ready?”

“As ready as you are.”

“Then let’s go blow up some guns.”

Savvy Saturday – Thinking Across Cultures (3)

Academics, New stories, Writing Tips

The story of Kiwa and Tika continues, giving examples of how collectivists and individualists can be written in different situations. Today’s relevant collectivist/individualist difference: group goal/duty oriented versus personal goal/happiness oriented.

To remind yourself of what’s going on, you can check out the list and explanation of traits of collectivist and individualist cultures in Part 1 of my Thinking Across Cultures series, and read the beginning of Kiwa and Tika’s stories in Part 2.

Kiwa:

Kiwa entered the wooden house of Commander Dasho, was shown to his private study by his young son, and bowed before the great warrior. He nodded back, dark eyes keen beneath bushy gray eyebrows, and gave her a rolled-up scroll. “You are the youngest of your cohort?” he asked after they exchanged a traditional greeting.

It wasn’t a question, but she nodded.

“You have been offered a chance at great honor,” he said. “The Emperor has grown weary of reports of raider attacks on Trader Clan’s caravans. He has tasked me with the duty of forming a new cohort, a sixteenth cohort, that will search out and destroy the mountain nest of the raider vermin. I need young warriors who are well-disciplined and not burdened with husband or children to ride into the mountains and fulfill the Emperor’s command. I have chosen you as one of six who will serve under the command of Shoto, son of Shoko. If you accept this honor, you will leave at dawn. What say you?”

Kiwa kept her face blank, but her mind reeled. Assigned to a new cohort? To leave Commander Tomo and the brothers and sisters she had fought with for three years, to be sent away from her parents, to be forced to ride into unknown territory where the raiders lurked in the snow with their curved blades and their unholy blood-rituals… She wanted to say no. She wasn’t like Nima, the loudmouthed girl who served in the fifth cohort and chattered away like a bird with talk of adventure and glory and proving herself.

And yet, this would not just be an honor for her, it would be an honor for her family. Kiwa could only imagine her parents’ pride as they watched her ride into the mountains under the command of the son of the most honorable and well-respected family in the village, willing to sacrifice her life in service to the Emperor. And when she came back – ah, that would be sweeter yet. The entire sixth warrior cohort would share in her success and be esteemed by every clan. Jolo and his family would bow in respect before her father in the marketplace. And the Rider Clan as a whole would be lifted up in the sight of the People of the Wind.

“I am unworthy to be chosen for such an honor,” Kiwa murmured, as formula required. “But if all other worthy candidates have turned aside, I am willing to do my duty.”

Commander Dasho nodded. “Very well,” he said, approval in his eyes and in his tone. “You are so assigned. May you bring honor to your family and the sixteenth cohort.”

Tika:

“Lieutenant Tika,” Doshin said by means of greeting.

Tika snapped to attention. “Sir.”

“Your record was brought to my attention today,” the commander said, tapping a thick file on his desk. “Please, have a seat.”

Tika sat, still unsure of why she was here. The commander looked troubled, but that didn’t necessarily indicate that she had reason for concern. There was a war on; the commander always looked troubled.

“Commander Tohmo tells me that you’re the best sharp-shooter he’s seen in fifteen years,” Doshin said. “And from him, that’s saying something.”

Tika sat up straighter, and couldn’t keep a grin from coming to her face. “Thank you, sir.”

“He also says that you’ve been to the infirmary ten times in the past month for injuries not sustained under training procedures.”

Tika’s grin faded.

Doshin shook his head and tapped the folder. “I can’t have loose cannons running around my station, Tika. Not even with scores like yours.” He opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a single sheet of paper. He pushed it toward her. “This is a mission I’d like you to volunteer for,” he said. “Classified, I’m afraid, but I can guarantee your ranged weapon skills will be put to good use. It shouldn’t last more than six months.”

Tika’s breath caught in her throat. “Six months?” she blurted out. “Can Noto come?”

“I’m sorry,” Doshin said, shaking his head. “Just you.”

“Then no. Not interested.”

Doshin pursed his lips. “If you don’t volunteer,” he said, “I’ll be forced to transfer you off-station.”

Tika’s mind reeled. This couldn’t be happening. She was supposed to be here for another three years at least, and Noto’s service time wouldn’t be up for another five. She couldn’t be transferred off-station! It wasn’t fair!

“If it’s any consolation,” Doshin said, “if you succeed on this mission, I’m sure you’ll have your pick of next post – and enough clout to ask for your own team.”

Tika’s eyebrows shot up. “What kind of assignment are we talking about?”

Doshin just smiled and pushed the paper further toward her. “Dangerous. But worth it. I promise.”

Tika gritted her teeth. Six months of dangerous was better than permanently transferred. And then she’d be back with Noto, and nothing would keep them apart. “All right. I’ll do it. Sir.”

“Excellent.” Commander Doshin’s smile grew wider. “Thank you for your cooperation, Lieutenant. And good luck.”

Savvy Saturday – Thinking Across Cultures

Academics, Writing Tips

How would you describe yourself?

I am (a) _______, ________, and ________

 The answer you give to that question will immediately give a cross-cultural psychologist a huge insight into your entire conception of yourself and how you view life.

How, you ask? It’s simple. Did the three words you picked revolve around personal attributes (e.g. “I am a writer, I am artistic, I am tall”) or did they revolve around group memberships (e.g. “I am a daughter, I am a UNL PhD student, I am a church member”)? If you’re like most Westerners, your answers were mostly in the former category. This is because, if you’re from the US, England, or other European countries, you were raised in an “individualist” culture.

However, that’s not the way everyone in the world thinks. It isn’t even how most people think. And it matters. The alternative to an individualist culture is a collectivist culture. Individualist cultures tend to focus on individuals and their achievements, while collectivist cultures (think China) tend to focus on groups and maintaining harmony within them.

Unsurprisingly, books written by Western authors (e.g. American, English, Australian, and most European authors) typically approach characters, plots, and motivations from an individualist setting. As the world globalizes, however, and as we interact with, befriend, and write about other cultures, it becomes ever more important for authors to be able to accurately portray people not only from individualist societies, but from collectivist societies.

This week’s and next week’s post, then, will discuss and illustrate the differences between individualist and collectivist cultures, especially with regard to how individuals from these cultures might act and think in the setting of a novel. This week will discuss five basic questions that illustrate the basic framework as developed by Triandis (1989), and next week will give some examples of how an author might use this framework in their writing.

The rest of this post summarizes and discusses: Triandis, Harry C. (1989), “Cross-Cultural Studies of Individualism and Collectivism,” in John Berman (Ed.),  Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 41-133. Note that the following is a set of generalizations and universal statements that are actually far more complex than the summaries allow to be stated. Not all individuals from individualistic or collectivist cultures will follow these patterns.

Difference 1: What motivates individuals to act?

–          Individualist cultures: People’s personal goals shape their motivations. When an individual’s goals are out of line with a group’s goals, the individual is allowed (and even expected) to follow their own goals. Example: classic myths follow the exploits of individuals, who often disobey those in authority because of their own callings and desires, and are rewarded for it.

–          Collectivist cultures: A group’s goals shape individual motivations. If an individual’s goals are out of line with a group’s goals, the individual needs to change his/her goals and do his/her duty to the group. Example: a hero is tempted to neglect his duty to his family/the emperor, but resists temptation and is rewarded for it.

 

Difference 2: How is the “self” defined?

–          Individualist cultures: An individual’s public self and private self should be the same. Great value is placed on being honest and authentic with others – being oneself is seen as inherently good. Saying what you think, albeit with tact, is a character trait that is valued rather than looked down on. Example: A protagonist from an individualist culture might be brash, speak before he thinks, and get himself in trouble by what he says, but still be loved by readers for his honesty and good heart.

–          Collectivist cultures: An individual’s self is defined by how one’s in-group expects one to behave. Great value is placed on doing and saying what is expected, no matter what one actually thinks. Harmony within one’s in-group (such as one’s family) is paramount, and one does not wish to do, say, or be anything that would bring shame to other members of that in-group. Example: A protagonist from a collectivist culture might “do the right thing” by telling everyone that he is in favor of his daughter marrying a person he doesn’t like, and either try to change his own mind, or work secretly to keep the wedding from happening.

 

Difference 3: Who matters to the individual?

–          Individualist cultures: An individual belongs to many groups, and can pick and choose which to be attached to. Most often, individuals choose to remain closest to their immediate family. In addition, in the immediate family, the spousal tie tends to be the strongest, and trumps the tie of parents and children. However, there are a myriad of clubs, organizations, friend groups, religious groups, fandoms, etc. which individuals can join. Individuals choose which of these groups they want to invest their time and loyalty in, so as to maximize their personal happiness. Example: Our Hero joins a caravan that’s headed over the mountains. He may enjoy playing the lute with the musicians, gambling around the fire with the men, and fighting alongside the warriors to protect the caravan from raiders, but he is perfectly happy to move on and leave them behind when he gets to the next town.

  • A consequence of this: An individual is defined in terms of his own self, not in terms of the groups he belongs to. If a group dissolves, the individual is unlikely to change his/her core beliefs and allegiances. Example: Our Hero’s caravan is attacked, everyone in it is killed, and Our Hero is taken captive by the wild men of the mountains. Our Hero will maintain his moral identity and sense of self until he can escape.

–          Collectivist cultures: An individual is emotionally attached to a few groups, which deserve his/her utmost dedication. One’s family, one’s work-group, and one’s neighborhood might all be vital parts of a collectivist’s life. Within the family, hierarchical relationships between parents and children are vitally important – even more important than between spouses. In addition, a collectivist may be callous, rude, or even brutal to people outside his/her in-groups – they are potential enemies, and are certainly not deserving of one’s time and effort. Example: Our Hero had looked forward to spending an evening writing poetry. However, his neighbor needs someone to escort her son to a neighboring town – a journey of several hours. It is Our Hero’s duty to do so, and he willingly obliges. On their way, Our Hero passes by a stranger whose cart has broken. He feels no need to stop and help; he would actually be neglecting his duty to his neighbor, her son, and thereby the entire neighborhood group, if he does so.

  • A consequence of this: An individual is defined in terms of the groups he belongs to, which means that if his group dissolves, he is likely to be shaken to the core of his very being, and will need to find another group to become a part of. Example: In World War II, Japanese prisoners of war volunteered in good faith to become spies for the Allies, and did a very good job of it. They switched allegiances because they had saved their own lives against orders, and no longer were able to view themselves as Japanese.

 

Difference 4: What matters to the individual?

–          Individualistic cultures: An individual values freedom, achievement, enjoying life, ambition, and other similar values. Example: “I just want to get out of here and make my own way in the world!”

–          Collectivist cultures: An individual values equality, obedience, harmony/security, and other similar values. Example: “I just want to do what is expected of me, to increase the wellbeing of my family.”

 

Difference 5: How are members of other groups viewed?

–          Individualistic cultures: An individual is responsible for his/her own behavior, not for anyone else’s. Even if a person belongs to a group, that group isn’t responsible for his actions, and the individual isn’t responsible for the group’s actions. Acting otherwise is likely seen as prejudicial and nonsensical. Example: a civilian tourist doesn’t expect to be confronted about the policies of his/her government when he/she is out purchasing souvenirs. “Give me a break!” he says. “I didn’t vote for that bill. I’m just here on vacation!”

–          Collectivist cultures: An individual is responsible for the behavior of the entire group, and the group is responsible for its members’ behavior. At all times, individuals know that they represent the groups to which they belong. Even if they do not privately agree with the actions of their leaders, it is imperative that in public they act as if they do. Similarly, it is up to the leadership of a group to discipline and control the behavior of all of its members, or everyone will be shamed. Example: a civilian tourist knows that he is representing his country, so he takes care to dress and speak in an appropriate manner at all times lest he shame his people by giving a bad impression.

 

 

Again, these five questions and the answers to them are broad, sweeping claims based on experimental studies and psychological scholarship as found in Triandis (1989). They aren’t gospel truth, but as a writer, I believe they’re worth considering when we create and write about cultures that are different from our own.

How do your experiences match up with the framework above? Do you have favorite books or characters that come from a collectivist worldview? Leave a comment and share your thoughts!

Savvy Saturday – How to Retell a Story

The Quest of the Unaligned, Writing Tips

Last week, I posted about the value of retelling or adapting classic stories. For this post, I want to give an example – with helpful step by step instructions! – of how one might take a classic story and rework it in a different context. Not only is it fun, it is also a useful writing exercise for any writer who is trying to develop their skill at creating worlds and characters.

The first step (step one a) is to lay out the main character and plot events of the story you’re going to tell or rework. Let’s take the Biblical story of Joseph as an example.

Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers

According to Genesis, Joseph was the 11th of 12 brothers, but the eldest of the two sons born to his father’s favorite wife. For this reason, Joseph was his father’s favorite. In addition, from the time he was young, Joseph had dreams that proved to come true. He was rash, impetuous, and arrogant, and told his brothers that according to his dreams, they would all bow to him. Eventually, his brothers grew so furious at him that they sold him to a passing group of slavers and told his father that he was killed by a wild animal. Joseph was sold as a slave in Egypt to a high official, and through his skills (and blessing from God) became the overseer of his household. He was falsely accused by the official’s wife of improper conduct and spent the next number of years in prison. Finally, after hearing of his powers of interpreting dreams, Pharaoh sent for him to interpret a strange dream that boded ill for Egypt. Joseph, through God’s power, was able to interpret the dream and was made second in command of all Egypt. Through this position, he prepared Egypt for a coming famine. When the famine hit, everyone had to come to Egypt for food – including Joseph’s brothers. Joseph tested his brothers to see if they had changed, and when it turned out they had, he revealed himself to them and forgave them. In the end, Joseph’s entire family moved to Egypt, where they prospered for as long as Joseph was alive.

Step one b is to figure out which of these elements we want to keep for retelling the story. For simplicity’s sake, let’s keep the character of Joseph the same as in the original story. We’ll also make him a favored younger son, though we don’t have to keep all eleven of his brothers. The themes of filial jealousy, revenge, repentance, and ultimate forgiveness will be kept, as will Joseph’s sudden shock of being ripped away from his family, his humiliation and degradation, and his ultimate maturing during suffering, and his being put in a position of power due to the ability that got him in trouble as a boy. We’ll also keep his confrontation with his brothers and the happy ending.

Step two a is to decide the new setting for this story. Let’s do two of them for fun. One will be a fantasy, set in my magical kingdom of Cadaeren (where The Quest of the Unaligned takes place). The other will be set in a pseudo-historical fiction/generic “pirates” setting. Because pirates are awesome.

Step two b is to determine how the main plot and character points will be different from the original story, given the setting we’ve chosen. In Cadaeren, Joseph can still be a herdsman’s son, as in the original story, but his dreams and unique powers should be based on the magic of this world. We’ll have him be an aesh. Instead of going to Egypt, the sophisticated land of pyramid-builders who looked down on their herdsmen neighbors, Joseph will go to Tonzimmel, the sophisticated city of technology users who look down on Cadaerians as being superstitious peasants. Instead of becoming right-hand man to Pharaoh, Joseph will end up on the Governing Board of Tonzimmel. Finally, instead of a famine driving Joseph’s brothers to Egypt, a mysterious illness will have struck Cadaeren, including its magical healers. The only place that will have medicine is Tonzimmel – and Joseph will be in charge of imports and exports.

In the pirate story, Joseph will be the youngest son of a wealthy fisherman. His father is a widower twice over, and loves Joseph best of his four sons, because he’s the only thing that reminds his father of his beloved second wife. In addition, when Joseph was baptized into the Catholic church as an infant, the priest informed his father that God had revealed that the boy was specially blessed for a special purpose. That blessing will be the source of his insight.

In this version, Joseph and his brothers will be out fishing when a pirate ship casts its sights on them. The brothers will bargain with the captain, offering him Joseph – and his God-given blessings and insights – in exchange for their lives. This captain will play the roles of both the slavers and Potipher, as he takes Joseph on board his crew. Instead of being thrown in prison after being falsely accused, Joseph will be forced to walk the plank, then be found by a different ship and made a galley slave of the most feared pirate on the seas. He will eventually become this captain’s first officer. As such, he will be in a position of power to argue for keeping and hoarding the foodstuffs that they capture rather than selling it: from his dreams, he knows that there’s a famine coming. He will be reunited with his brothers when his captain’s ship boards theirs, and they are forced to bargain with Joseph for their lives. In the end, faced with the famine that has hit the mainland, they and their father will move to the pirates’ private island, where they will be under Joseph’s protection and well cared for. The pirates turn to selling the food that they have kept stored for years, and become wealthy beyond their wildest imaginings, and the people of the land don’t die from starvation.

Step three is to then figure out what the plot of your story – in addition to the elements of the story you’re retelling – is actually going to be. This is where you can have fun playing with the different parts of your novel. For instance, the Cadaeren story might feature a ring of corrupt officials in Tonzimmel, the existence of which Joseph discovers over time and has to take down before he can be named to Tonzimmel’s Governing Board. Or the pirate story might be full of naval battles and treasure hunts, through which Joseph proves his courage, insight, and leadership skills to his captain. Whatever you choose, make sure the plot reflects who your characters are, and what the burning needs are that drive them. Cadaerian Joseph will be driven by an urge to uncover the truth, gain knowledge, and prove that he’s right – because he’s an aesh, and that’s what aeshes do. Pirate Joseph might at first be driven by an urge to gain enough wealth and prestige so that he can purchase a royal pardon and retire back to his home and elderly father, only to slowly accept a higher purpose of saving the lives of the pirates, their town, and everyone on the mainland who would otherwise die of starvation.

This is why retellings are such fun: with good writing and a touch of creativity, you can come up with a thousand different plots that will delight readers by both giving them what they expect, and then also tweaking their expectations to keep them turning the pages to find out what happens next.

What classic story would you love to read as a retelling? Leave a comment with your thoughts!

Savvy Saturday – Book reviews, of a sort

Reviews and Exemplars, Writing Tips

If you want to be a good writer, you have to read good books. Lots of them. Inductively learning and reviewing how master authors build characters, build worlds, build tension, and even build sentences helps keep your brain sharp and your stories fresh.

Unfortunately, pleasure reading is not something that graduate students have much time for. That’s another reason that I love Christmas break: despite the work that still has to be done, there is free time for novels. What a lovely happening.

Over my Christmas break, I read (or re-read) works in three distinct genres: classic science fiction (featured: Andre Norton’s Star Soldiers), newly written fantasy (featured: Rick Riordan’s The House of Hades), and British murder mystery (featured: Dorothy Sayers’ Murder Must Advertise).

What was most interesting to me about these works was how differently the authors wrote to communicate a gripping story. Each of these three authors is well-known in his or her genre, has round characters, and puts these characters in scenarios that they must be clever in order to get out of. But that’s where the similarities between these books ends – and I’m not talking about the aliens versus magic versus British nobility. In the following paragraphs, I’m going to comment on some of the unique aspects of the writing of each of these three books and their authors. (Don’t worry – no spoilers.)

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Andre Norton, like many science fiction writers, has a tendency to emphasize world-building. Through the book Star Soldiers, we get a history of Earth’s future, in addition to interesting tidbits about the cultures of the planet on which Our Hero finds himself trapped with his crew. However, this emphasis can grow to be a bit much: nearly every page includes explications of alien customs or the inclusion of alien words or jargon that – even most of the way through the book – are difficult to understand. Stylistically, Norton makes heavy use of dashes, and has a greater affinity for exclamation marks than is currently in vogue. Some of this is likely due to the book’s original publication date of 1953, though some is also just likely the author’s unique style.

 

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Rick Riordan, unique of the authors in this group, writes in the first person from the point of view of teenage “demi-gods” who speak in modern vernacular. What was particularly interesting in this book was seeing how he maintained unique voices among the multiple characters telling the story. As the fourth in a series, The House of Hades is a continuation of a previous adventure, and both picks up and leaves off in the middle of the action. As such, Riordan doesn’t have to introduce the main characters, but he does have the tricky job of reminding readers who may have forgotten what happened in the prior books of what is going on, why people are doing what they’re doing, and what we learned about characters in previous books that is now vitally important. Also unique among the works I read over break, Riordan’s books are written to be funny. Not only do characters make jokes, but specific word-choices are made by the author to keep young readers’ attention. He does this well, and it’s no wonder that Rick Riordan has been on the best-seller list for years.

 

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Dorothy Sayers, in her Lord Peter Wimsey novels, writes in a more relaxed yet thoughtful way than do either of the other action-adventure authors discussed here. Murder Must Advertise was especially interesting to me as it is not only set in an advertising agency in Britain, it also gives pointed commentary on the nature of such agencies and print advertising. As a marketing Ph.D. student, I found these parts hilarious and apt. The voice of the author comes through much more clearly in these books than in the other two, showing Sayers’ understated wit in her descriptions of settings, and her comments upon characters and their actions. One particularly interesting literary device used in this story was the referencing of a character by two names: one name is his alibi, and the other his true name, but even after his true name is known, the character is continued to be referenced by his alibi in situations where he is acting as that character. This leads to the author’s ability to change our perceptions of the character and what he is going to do in a situation simply by changing which name she uses to refer to him.

While I would not want to adopt anyone else’s writing style, reading these three incredibly different authors has reminded me of the many different ways of using the English language to powerful effect. Hopefully, these novels will be enough to put me in good stead until next break. Whether or not this proves the case, however, I’ll be a good student and stick to reading academic articles until then.

Savvy Saturday – Tropes, Themes, and More!

The Quest of the Unaligned, Writing Tips

A friend of mine posted this video on Facebook the other day – it’s pretty amusing, if you have time to watch it.

This video (subtly) brings up the issues of rip-offs, clichés, tropes, and themes. These four are what I’ll be talking about in today’s Savvy Saturday post, and they go in a sort of progression from bad to good. Rip-offs are probably just what you think they are. Someone likes someone else’s idea, writes their own version of it that’s really similar to the original, and tries to market it as their own unique work.

For instance, any time you’ve heard something called “A Lord of the Rings rip-off,” you can bet that it probably involves an everyman type of protagonist in a world full of magical creatures (likely including elves and dwarves), who has to join a quest to rid the world of some dark magical evil that threatens life as we know it, the life-force of which is bound to some object that the questers must hunt down and destroy.

Rip-offs, by their nature, are of lower quality than the original; it is also typically clear that a rip-off was trying to emulate the original work and didn’t do as good a job as the first author. For something to be a rip-off, then, it has to have enough specific elements in it that were also in the original book that it’s clear that the author of the rip-off book couldn’t have gotten them from another source.

Clichés are elements that get included in so many stories that they’re no longer new or interesting. We’re most used to clichés being figures of speech (e.g. “it was a dark and stormy night,” “she was good as gold,” “when hell freezes over”), but they can also be settings, situations, or characters. Fairy tales that include two older sons who are bad and a third son who is good are invoking this classic cliché. Meeting an old woman who turns out to be a witch/sorceress/fairy is a similar fairy tale cliché. (Double points if she’s met by a well and asks the hero to draw water for her!) Similarly, black hair or attire is a clichéd mark of a villain, while blond hair and simple peasant attire is a clichéd mark of The Chosen One. (For any of you who are interested, countering this cliché is one reason why Alaric’s hair and security chief uniform in The Quest of the Unaligned are both black.)

 

Disney movies take the idea of a character-situation-setting cliché to an extreme: probably half of their heroes and villains end up fighting on a perilously high location (likely in the rain), the hero saves the villain’s life, and the villain ends up falling to his death. (See Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Tarzan, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, etc.)

From this example, you can see that stories can have clichés in them and still be fun to read. The problem with clichés is that you as a reader know what’s going to happen already in the story, so it will be less able to keep your interest. Clichéd stories have a tendency to fall into the realm of “mindless fluff” and entertainment, and therefore less of a tendency to be remembered more than five minutes after the reader puts the book down.

Tropes are the ideas that the video above is using to amusing effect. A short definition is that tropes are a typology of the ways in which plots, settings, and characters can play out. For instance, if you’ve already read The Quest of the Unaligned, or if you don’t mind spoilers, you can check out http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TheQuestOfTheUnaligned, which lists all of the tropes readers have found (thus far) in the novel. The idea that George Lucas and J.K. Rowling have “the same protagonist” in their books is because they both use a number of classic tropes about “The Chosen One.” This is a particular kind of hero who has particular kinds of adventures due to his particular background. However, the descriptions of the trope are broad enough that authors can interpret tropes in creative and entertaining ways, such that the reader base can’t determine exactly what will come next.

Harry Potter and Luke Skywalker

Finally, themes are broad, general messages that can be drawn out of stories to make a statement about the world at large. “Good triumphs over evil” is one theme that is found in many stories. “The transforming power of love” is another, as is “Freedom is more important than peace.” (Here’s looking at you, Hunger Games.) Themes might be purposefully included in a book by an author, or they might just work themselves into a story without the author’s knowledge, to be later found and teased out by eager English teachers.

In fact, themes are one of a book’s most powerful weapons for shaping readers’ opinions and the culture at large. When you read a story, psychologists say that you are “transported” with the story and are susceptible to being influenced by the morals and messages of that story. Even after the story is finished and the reader comes back to the real world, experiments have shown that people are more likely to agree with the ideas from the story than they were before they read it.

To summarize, stories have power. They have more power when they’re not rip-offs or clichéd, and they use their power via telling stories with tropes to express themes that they can use to change readers’ minds, and hopefully change the world.

Now you know my secret plan. Change readers’ minds, and change the world. In what way? Find the themes of my stories, and you’ll have a pretty good guess.