As many of you already know, I’m a firm believer in the power of networking.  As a writer, it is part of my job to not only write interesting stories, but to meet people who can help those stories get into the hands of readers.  That group of people includes publishers, editors, other writers, marketing folks, agents and, of course, the readers themselves.

One thing I don’t think I’ve ever said is that the networking portion of the job is easy… or fruitful… or without stress.  I’ve never said that because it is easily the toughest thing to do.  At least it is for me.

Some people have the gift of gab and can walk up to anyone and begin chatting them up.  I, alas, am not one of those people.  It takes a very definite effort for me to walk up to someone I don’t know and talk to them.  Fortunately, when it comes to talking about writing, I have an easier time of it.

That’s how I met Dave Duncan, Simon Rose, Robert Sawyer and Jack Whyte.  Without my passion for talking all things writing, I would have given talking to all of them a pass, much to my misfortune, I think.

Take, for example, Simon Rose (http://simon-rose.com/).  Of that list, he may be the least known.  I met Simon 5 years ago at a book signing for his first book “The Sorcerer’s Letterbox”.

Simon is not the typical author that I read.  He is a children’s writer and he now has 5 books in print.  I saw him at the book signing and decided to take a chance and talk to him.  Simon was more than willing to talk to a fledgling writer.  I’m grateful to say that he and I have had many enjoyable hours of conversation since that day.  He has definitely set a powerful example for me and I consider him to be a bit of a mentor.

It’s because of him that I actually wrote my first children’s book.  He is also the subject of today’s post.  Let me explain.

I made a point of going to meet with him again when he came to one of the local book stores for a signing of his latest book.  Business was slow when I got there so he and I started to catch up.  I told him of my latest projects and he told me of some progress he’s making getting a New York publisher.

That’s when it happened.

He asked me if I had been in contact with Dragon Moon Press.  I explained that I hadn’t because they weren’t accepting submissions from anyone except authors recommended by one of their stable of authors.

Simon told me that he was one of their authors, or at least the editor considered him to be.

I was surprised to say the least.  Dragon Moon publishes adult fantasy novels.  Simon writes children’s adventure novels.  While they have some minor similarities, they are NOT the same thing by any stretch.

Simon went on to explain that Dragon Moon had put a book out on writing and he had been asked to contribute a chapter, hence, he was one of their authors.  Then he offered to put my story in front of the editor for him.

Only one word can describe that moment for me… WOW!

We talked more and Simon explained how he had met the editor.  Apparently, he had been networking at ConVersion when it came through Calgary.  For those of you who don’t know, ConVersion is a Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing Convention (that I missed, regretably).  Even though Simon doesn’t current write in that genre, he was still there making connections.

It not only got him some work writing for Dragon Moon, it got him several valuable contacts, some of which may help me out.  I’ve asked him to hold off for a short while until I’ve had a chance to rework the story a little.  I’m hoping Dragon Moon might see it mid to late next year.

Simon naturally asked me if I had gone to ConVersion.  I had to admit that I had missed it.  His advice… go to it next year along with any other writing convention I can too.  I’m going to have to take a deep breath and follow his excellent advice.

And, it proves my point.  Always put yourself out there, no matter how difficult it may be.  You never know when you might come across someone who can really help you in the future.

By the time this week is over, you will probably be well and truly tired of hearing about creating characters.

Isn’t it great?

I personally will echo my fellow SWN’ers in saying that I love having the chance to look at and feed off of each other’s ideas.  It makes things so much easier, if not more interesting.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, most of my stories are character driven.  But I’ve recently been reviewing some of my writing and I’ve discovered something:  my protagonists have a great deal of depth, but the antagonists seem to be lacking a certain something (they are mostly one-dimensional, I would say). 

It became very apparent as I was reading one of my longer stories.  The antagonists are these shadowy figures who aren’t given names or even real motives.  Not ever.  Think that might be a problem?

Now don’t get me wrong, an omnipresent threat that looms over the heroes, preparing to strike is an interesting dynamic.  Case in point, Sauron from “Lord of the Rings”.  But, as you have noticed already, that looming threat has a name – Sauron.  He has a back story.  He has physical henchmen (the Ringwraiths) who go around being nasty.  In his case, the bad guy is very much a real threat.

Mine was just the suggestion of a threat, kind of like knowing that there are terrorists out there but not really having anything else to go on.

But isn’t a bad character different from a good character?

Not really.  The antagonists have hopes and dreams of their own too, just like the protagonists.  As has already been mentioned, they might not even think of themselves as bad.  Certainly the old saying that history is written by the victors applies here as well.  The winner is naturally the “good guy” in every story and the loser is the “bad guy”.

You might say something like “but the antagonist does bad things” or “they are greedy and self-centered”.  You might even be right, but I challenge comments like that by asking the simple question:  “haven’t we all done something that we weren’t proud of at one time or another?”  I know I have.

I have seen some good character developments for the antagonist.  One was on “Heroes”.  In it, Peter Petrelli, the proverbial good guy, got some misinformation by the bad guy (Adam).  He started working with Adam because his perception of the situation was wrong.  He does eventually come around learn the truth, but imagine if something bad happened to him.  Maybe his girlfriend is killed or he gets tragically maimed.

Suddenly, Peter no longer wants to do the right thing any more.  He gives up on helping others.  He has a grudge and starts down the dark path.

It could happen, couldn’t it?  It doesn’t, but for a very short while, he is one of the “bad guys”.

Another example, this time closer to life:  a man is feeling a LOT of pressure.  His job is less than steller and he knows that he has to make more money to support his growing family.  The problem is, there’s only so many hours in the day.  He starts drinking to escape.  Soon he starts taking drugs because the alcohol isn’t quite doing it.

While he’s drunk and/or stoned, he accidently hurts or even kills someone and goes to prison because of it.  He loses his family, his friends abandon him and his life is rapidly spinning out of control.  Is he a bad person?  Maybe not at first, but chances are he’s going to become one to support his addictions.

You see how easy it is to build up a “bad” character?  I don’t know of anyone who was born bad (unless you consider Stewie from “Family Guy”).  Most people start life as happy children who want nothing more than to play with their friends and have fun.  Unfortunately, sometimes life takes an unhappy turn and the happy child becomes something dark and terrible.  It’s finding the path they followed to become that… thing… that you, as the writer needs to do.

Now that I’ve come to that understanding, I’m going to rework some of my stories with truly “bad” villains.  What will make it interesting is trying to get the reader to say “there but for the grace of God go I” when they’re finished reading.