If Your Character’s Missing a Shoe, Try Finding its Match

by Martina Boone

“Love commingled with hate is more powerful than love. Or hate.”

~Joyce Carol Oates~

So yesterday I was driving home from work and I saw a random shoe on the side of the road. It wasn’t the first time either. Maybe it’s where I live or maybe I’m just weird for noticing this kind of thing, but I swear I see an orphaned shoe like every other week. Construction boots, a child’s sandal, heels, sneakers, flip flops – one time I even saw a walking cast. A WALKING CAST.

Every time I come across this phenomenon, I think – what happened to the other shoe? Who drives and tosses their footwear out the window? I mean, who does that??? Is there a strange shoe cult congregating in Maryland or something?

Anyway, I swear I have a point.

And it’s this – aside from a cluttered closet or a store display, there’s something odd about seeing a single shoe. I mean, they’re supposed to come in pairs. A right. A left. Opposites of each other.

A shoe without its partner is…unbalanced. Lacking of the other. Missing its yin (or yang). This concept of duality isn’t anything new. It goes back forever: Life and Death. Black and white. Sun and moon. Good and Evil. I’m definitely not a philosopher, but when a relationship is weighted heavily to one side or you’re missing a part of the pair, everything else becomes weak and insignificant to the monopoly of the one that is left over. Or something like that, right?

(Just nod your head yes and follow me a sec…)

Duality, opposites, balance, shared responsibility – conceptually, it should be present in your story one way or another. But to better illustrate what I really mean, I’m going to single out the one thematic pair that’s probably the most prevalent in children’s literature:

Love and Hate.

Simply stated, they cannot exist without each other. I wish this weren’t so. One day, it’d be nice for Miss America to get what she’s always longed for. But truth is, if we didn’t have the dirty black streak of hate to spar opposite our purist of purity pure love, then we wouldn’t understand love, and vice versa. It’s an ever-present, ever-dipping scale.

In our stories, we need this contrast – this conflict – to build tension and provide a three-dimensional environment for our characters to play in. If you write a love story that’s all LOVE! LOVE! LOVE!, it would read so sappy, Cheetos would be crying for their cheese back.

In my humble opinion, love and hate are pretty much essential flavors in a good book. And the pairing requires attention to balance and equality, my friends.

Example #1: Romeo and Juliet had this amazing, crazy kind of love, right? But in old Bill Shakes’ story, there was an equally intense hatred between the Capulets and Montagues. TENSION.

Example #2: Katniss wanted to protect her family above all else—even above her own life. But her desire to protect was rivaled by her hatred for the Capitol and all the oppression it represented. CONFLICT.

Example #3: Indiana Jones loved him some adventures, didn’t he? The crazier the locale, the more bad guys he had to fight—the better! So long as there weren’t snakes. But if there were snakes…well, who could forget that scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark with the pyramid full of every slithering reptile known to man? STAKES.

I don’t care how old your protagonist is – five, ten, fifteen, twenty – there must be someone or something he/she loves:

Mom, Dad, brother, sister, friends, boyfriend, girlfriend, teacher, coach, movie star, pet, team, sport, hobby, car, money, school subject, book, video game, food, social status, etc…

And there must be someone or something he or she hates JUST AS MUCH.

So my tip is this: No matter how much your character favors something or someone, try giving her something equal to dislike. The more matched in significance they are in your character’s mind, the more organic tension we’ll see on the page as your turning points occur and your character struggles to maintain the scale of keeping everything in her life balanced.

So let’s go back to that shoe I saw on the side of the road.

I don’t know where the other pair is. I don’t know why they were separated in the first place. But I know every time I drive that road from now on, I’m gonna be on the lookout for its match.

Tell me, what does your protagonist love? What does he or she hate? Is the degree to which your character views these things matched? How do you pit the two against each other to create tension, conflict, or stakes for your character? Should I leave all this deep thinking to philosophical scholars?

Discuss!

Additional Reading:

Kathy Temean highlights Donald Maas’s tips for creating conflict within your character: https://kathytemean.wordpress.com/2010/12/08/steps-to-create-a-memorable-character/

Genreality on Conflict: http://www.genreality.net/conflict

Danyelle on the QueryTracker Blog talks about villains – and really, you can’t have a villain without a hero! http://querytracker.blogspot.com/2010/12/case-for-villains.html

Happy Pair-Finding!
Cam

Martina Boone

Martina Boone is the award-winning author of the romantic southern gothic Heirs of Watson Island series, starting with COMPULSION from Simon & Schuster, Simon Pulse and the Celtic Legends Collection of novels set in Scotland, Cornwall, and Ireland beginning with LAKE OF DESTINY. She’s passionate about improving lives through literacy and the love of books, and she runs the Compulsion For Reading program to distribute books to underserved schools and libraries.

She lives with her husband, children, Shetland Sheepdog Phinney, and Zoey the lopsided cat, and she enjoys writing contemporary romantic fiction with a hint of magic set in small towns and beautiful places. When she isn’t writing, she’s addicted to travel, horses, skiing, chocolate flavored tea, and anything with Nutella on it.

Post © Martina Boone and/or Adventures in YA Publishing. All rights reserved.

Posted: Mar 29, 2011

Category: Imported from AYAP

Tags: Craft of Writing | Martina Boone | Tension | Theme

Welcome to Transmedia Mutts

Yellow origami dog on a teal background

Unleash your creative bark!

Shout out to AYAP!

Logo for Adventures in YA Publishing

Thank you to the women who started Adventures in YA Publishing and ran it for years. AYAP and TMM have merged to form Adventures in PUPlishing, and the legacy AYAP posts are now part of TMM. Click here to learn more about the earlier AYAP team.

Click to Join our Facebook Group

Share advice, practice pitching, celebrate successes, and support each other through writing and publishing adventures.

← Previous: In Stores This Week (with Interviews & Giveaways) Next: WOW Wednesday: Angie Smibert on the Company of Debut Writers →

The first slide is an animation of a science/magic room in a castle. A cartoon character of a mad-scientist looking man in in the foreground says: “Hello! Dr. Frankenstein here to say, Well Done on kid lit zombie week! I’m an expert at reviving the dead, and let me assure you, with a little spark, you can bring dead projects to life. Especially if you dig up parts from other dead things. I’ll even let you have a sneak peek at my laboratory’s store room to consider potential parts for your dead project. If you see something with a yellow glow, that means you should click it. Have fun!”

He points to the right side of the screen and a new scene slides in of a castle science/magic storage room. There are various cartoon Frankenstein body parts scattered around. Some of them have a yellow glow. If you click on them, the images below appear (I’ve added alt text to them, so I hope it works).

The Heart of your story is the main character. The protagonist is the beating core that truly brings your story to life. If your MC doesn't make kids (and their grown-ups) care within the first few pages, your story will flatline. </p>
<p>Your main character needs to be:<br />
• Relatable enough for kids to see themselves<br />
• Unique enough to stand out in the slush pile<br />
• Active enough to drive the story<br />
• Memorable enough to survive multiple readings at bedtime</p>
<p>Where do you find this amazing donor heart? It might be the very thing you loved so much about the manuscript you want to revive. It might be the younger sister from your shelved YA novel. Or maybe it’s the hilarious kid you blogged about meeting at a school visit. Find a character beating with potential and place it in the center of your story.<br />

The Brain of your story is the theme or central message. The theme is the big idea that controls everything else. Picture books are more than stories - they're tiny life lessons disguised with humor and heart.</p>
<p>But your theme needs to be:<br />
• Subtle enough not to trigger the dreaded "didactic" rejection<br />
• Clear enough for a four-year-old to grasp<br />
• Universal enough to speak to both kids and adults<br />
• Fresh enough to prevent agents and editors from responding with "Not another sharing/bedtime/first-day story!"</p>
<p>Check your other dead manuscripts to see if there is a recurring theme, something that really seems to be speaking to you. Find the bit of poetry you scribbled on the back of a receipt to see what theme inspired it. Reread the pep talk you texted your critique partner at 1am. Pick the theme that will drive your story, giving it purpose, direction, and deeper meaning.<br />

The Legs of your story is the plot. Not to be confused with a grave plot.🤪 The plot is what keeps everything upright and moving, as well as providing support for all the other elements. You have very few words to use in a picture book, so you need to do a lot with each plot point.</p>
<p>In general, your plot should:<br />
• Hook readers fast<br />
• Build tension that a child can follow<br />
• Create page turns that feel natural<br />
• Wrap up in a way that satisfies</p>
<p>You can borrow a plot twist (a leg) from one manuscript and the opening (the other leg) from a different manuscript. Consider if the subplot of the middle grade novel you trunked would work better as a picture book. Or maybe your Facebook post about a disastrous camping trip could become a story for kids. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other until you have your storyline.

The Arms of your story are the side characters.

The Torso of your story is the setting. Setting helps a story breathe and connects all the elements of the story. It isn't just where your story lives, it's what makes your story ALIVE. It's the difference between "this happened in a park" and "this happened in that park, the one with the twisty slide that burns your legs and the creaky swing that sounds like a baby crying.”</p>
<p>Your setting should:<br />
• Make your character's world feel real<br />
• Contain your story in a way that makes sense to young readers<br />
• Connect different scenes and moments organically<br />
• Give your illustrator enough room to add visual subplots</p>
<p>Half-finished manuscripts are a great place to dig up settings, since you worked out the place details before the plot petered out. Or maybe you had to cut a second fantastic location from your chapter book. You can also revisit the detailed caption from your Instagram carousel documenting your tour of that delish candy shop. Disinter a robust setting that can house all of your story's vital organs.

After you press the Click When Done circle button, the lights flash with the sound of electricity buzzing. Then the screen goes black and lightning zaps across the screen with the sound of thunder.

The screen then lights up to show the storage room, and all the Frankenstein pieces have been assembled into the whole monster. An upbeat song plays in the background. Then a speech bubble pops up with the words, “I’m alive! I’M ALIVE!” Then the screen goes to black.

Dog holding a sign that says Pupdates!

Sign up for our newsletter for pupdates and publishing advice