What is a Manic Pixie Dream Girl?

She's free spirited. She's smart and interesting. She's damaged, but you can fix her.erent. She's the manic pixie dream girl...and she's in stories all the time.

Is the manic pixie dream girl anything like a real person? Should you be making an effort to erase her from your stories?
 

Holly Golightly

Kate Hudson's Penny Lane in "Almost Famous," Kate Winslet in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," Helena Bonham Carter in "Fight Club." They're all sexy, they all have a dark side and they're all fearless when it comes to being themselves. These are classic manic pixie dream girls but if you want a true prototype of this common character trope, look to Audrey Hepburn.

Hollywood goddess Audrey Hepburn arguably played a manic pixie dream girl in nearly every movie she appeared in and perhaps even originated this story trope on screen. No one quite captures the ceaseless drive to be happy that continues to fail due to the character's own dark undertones quite like Hepburn.

The character that embodies this trope the best is undoubtedly Holly Golightly, who fought endlessly to be herself, even when she had no idea who that self really was. She was driven toward finding happiness with a desperation that seamlessly transitioned between hopefulness and hopelessness in the blink of an eye, always at odds with the darker shades of her own mind and the cruel, cruel world surrounding her.

 Supporting Act

The problem with the trope is this: since Hepburn's Holly Golightly first appeared onscreen in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (and first, in Truman Capote's book of the same name), few stories have managed to give this character any real character.

She often breezes into the life of the male protagonist the story is actually about, spreading her wings and sprinkling little bon mots in his ears, shaking up his complacent world to become an ideal, a concept of what life could be if only he was as wild and free and unguarded as this fascinating creature.

And that…is usually as far as it goes. The manic pixie dream girl more often than not is a fantasy ideal who rarely gets to have much of a backstory unless it somehow endears her even more the the male who is falling in love not with her, but with the lifestyle she represents.

She appears as a two-dimensional sketch of a human being who is only there to break the guy out of his shell. Will he win her heart? With her, it doesn't matter. She can snatch the prize away as easily as it is won…and so the romantic dance continues. The source of her darkness is rarely explored and the reality of who she is remains a mystery. The mystery is a huge part of her appeal, so why spoil it by making her a real person?

Fixing the Trope

In good writing, in good stories, there shouldn't be any two-dimensional characters. The manic pixie dream girl can start out as this mysterious and free loving entity…but she can't stay that way. Every real person has hopes and dreams, past traumas, motivations and desires, painful memories. Every character has these things, too. Or at least, they should.

Some people resemble specific character tropes…at first. But everyone is more complex than their surface. The way to beat any trope is to reveal what's behind the character's mask. The audience sees Holly's mask slip and this is why she feels real. Show what lies behind the surface of your tropes and your characters will feel real, too.

Write What You Know?

When you tell people you are a writer, or that you want to be, you will invariably hear a piece of advice that all non-writers love to share: write what you know. 

So, what does that mean and are you doing it?

What Do You Know?

Though this little bit of advice is well-intentioned, hearing that you should write what you know is extremely discouraging.

What if you want to write about a fantasy world that exists far from planet Earth, or dive into a time that is long, long past? What if you have never worn a corset or held a sword or gone into battle behind the yoke of a starship flying across the galaxy? Does every story you write have to be set yesterday in a suburb or a city that millions of people already know? What if your character wants to eat truffles…and you've never tasted one?

Write what you know is a pretty impossible thing, when you really think about it.

But there's good news. This trite and usually unwanted phrase, "write what you know," does not mean what many people think it means. 

What Should You Write?

First, don't ever let anyone tell you what to write. While feedback is nice and most people genuinely want to help, ignore them. Every writer has to find their own voice and their own story to write. No one can really help you with that.

Second, you know what it is to be a human. You've had a crush, fallen in love, experienced heartbreak. Even if you've never had a passion-fueled affair or drove to Vegas in a convertible, you've loved TV or movie characters. You've experienced the grief of loss. You did and didn't get your way. Maybe you loved and adored a movie icon. Maybe you cried when a favorite character died.

These feelings are universal to the human experience, whether you're falling in love with someone on a screen from the safety of your couch or you're hurtling across a desert landscape in a Bronze Age chariot.

You still know love. You know grief. You know joy and pain. And for what you don't know, like how fast a chariot can move, there is research. Plenty of people have described the taste of truffles or the heat of a desert sun in painful detail.

The thing that makes stories great is not how many explosions there are, how many fantastical creatures you can shove into it, how often the main character performs a spell. It's in the human experience that the story tells.

And you definitely have experience with being a human. You know what it is to be human. So all you really need to do is write human characters. Wherever they go, whatever they eat, whoever they love, infuse them with what you know about being a human. Give them flaws. Watch them fall down. See how they overcome these struggles, how they find love, how they manage hate. Whether that story takes place in the suburbs or on an alien planet, that is a story people will like reading.

Writing 101: Author Reviews

It can be really hard to get reviews for a book, and self-published authors are the type of people who take things into their own hands. That’s why some authors go ahead and take the next step on their own, and write author reviews of their own books. Should you...or shouldn’t you? 

Your Own Drum

Many self-published authors also review books. I’ve done it before, myself. It’s a good way to get more exposure for indie authors of all kinds, and it’s something to blog about. So what’s to stop an indie author, any kind of author, from reviewing their own book? There are reasons why you shouldn’t, clearly...but there is a way you can do it with a touch of class, too.

Writing 101: Trusting Yourself

I've been using the same beta reader for awhile now, but lately my reader hasn't been available for my newest book. I stopped freaking out about that around the same time I learned a valuable lesson about writing. Beta readers and reviewers are great, but as an author you should always be trusting yourself...and so should I.

The Issue of Trust

It's good to have beta readers, to get a second opinion, to check your work against someone else so you know you're on the right track. But you can't always rely on these things. The actor writing a novel is always a risk. It's a leap. You're putting something out there that's personal to you, and the world may rip it to shreds. You'll get a little less bloody if a beta reader rips into you first. But you don't always get that option. That's why you always have to make sure you're trusting yourself...and your book.

Writing 101: Always Be a Critic

I haven’t made a lot of time for reading lately, something people are always surprised to find out about me when they also know that I’m a writer. But no matter how much I don’t read, I’m exposed to storytelling every single day -- both good and bad. And I’m a huge critic of all the stories I come into contact with. This is a post about why you should be like me, too.

Picking it Apart

Storytelling is everywhere, from movies to TV shows to songs to commercials. You’ll see short stories, long stories, dramatic stories -- every kind of story is available at all times, and you can probably get to it from your cell phone. And when you encounter any story, you should be criticizing it. This will help you to become a better storyteller. Seriously, it will. I’m not saying that because I like being judgmental.

Writing 101: Lying to the Readers

Whether you call it stretching the truth or creative promotion, lying to the readers isn’t a good idea -- even if it’s all done in the name of embellishment. Find out why it’ll never work to fudge on your credentials, make more out of your achievements or just downright fib about your books.

 
There Are No White Lies

Sure, it sounds more impressive to say that your book is a bestseller, or that you have a degree in this or that, or maybe that you have all five-star reviews. But if those things aren’t really, really true, it’s better not to say them at all. Even if you’re just fudging a little or exaggerating a lot, there’s one thing you can never lie to get: credibility. You don’t want to lose that, trust me. 

Writing 101: When Writing is a Job

Someone asked me, the other day, if I have any hobbies. I was surprised when I didn’t have a ready answer. A few years ago, I would have said “writing,” of course. But now, writing is my job. And when anything becomes a job, it’s easy to lose passion for that thing. 

Losing My Religion

Everyone’s passionate about their hobbies. It’s what they do in their free time, what they want to do once all the chores and working is done. So when you write for a living and write for a hobby, it’s easy to start feeling as though you work all the time. That really just leaves one question: how do you fix it?

The Author You Won’t Read About

Every Monday, I write about a different famous author. I like to dredge up some little-known information about them, expose their flaws, dig around in their secrets -- or maybe just talk about how they died. But there’s one author I’m never going to write about, and I’m about to tell you why.

Anonymous

I’ve written about authors that no one read until after their deaths, authors who were anonymous until they kicked the bucket, authors who died broke and even authors who killed themselves. There’s one author you’ll never see me write about: the one who gave up.

Writing 101: Repeating Words

If you write long enough, you’re going to develop a stable of favorite words. I use “clearly” all the time and describe things as “gray” way too often. When you edit your books, you should also be checking to see how often you’re repeating words. Too much repetition ruins the flow of the book and ends up becoming distracting...becoming distracting.

Clearly, Repetition is Bad

It’s really easy to fall into patterns when you write a lot. Scene structure, dialogue and your narrative voice can start to become formulaic, and you may find yourself repeating words. It’s a bad writing habit that you can’t always break.

You can, however, edit it.

Writing 101: Why You Have to Micromanage

I had a bit of trouble getting a cover together for my most recent (finished) book. Well, that’s a euphemism. The truth is, I bought like 5 covers. I wish I was exaggerating that number even a little. The first 4 times, I was way too considerate of other people’s creative process. I’ve learned that when you self-publish, even if you don’t do every little thing yourself you have to micromanage every little thing about your book. If not, you’re going to end up with half a dozen covers that you can’t even use.

Every Little Breath You Take

As an indie author, you don’t necessarily have to do everything yourself -- but you do have to direct all of it. Even if you hire an editor, a trailer-maker, a graphic cover designer or a guy to write your Tweets, you’ve got to tell them in explicit detail exactly what you want and what you expect. Because, as I learned, you’re just wasting time and money if you do otherwise.

Writing 101: Instability

For the purposes of this post, let’s assume that you are not the author of “Gone With the Wind” or “Catcher in the Rye.” Let’s also assume you did not create the Harry Potter series. That leaves pretty much all the other authors out there. This is the group who lives with daily instability. And for those who are wondering, the answer is no. It’s not going away...well, unless you write the next Harry Potter, of course. 

Tightrope

For even established authors and writers, the writing game is a tightrope walk. There are pretty much two ways to make money as an author: write a few books that sell a whole lot of copies, or write a lot of books that sell a great many copies. If you’re not doing that, you’re not really making money. As a freelance writer, most of the time you’re going to need to have a lot of jobs that pay well (and a few that don’t really pay that well) just to make ends meet. And here’s the thing about both authors and writers: the rug can get pulled out from under you at basically any moment. Then, you’ll fall down. 

The Other 57 Books That Charles Dickens Wrote

Great Expectations. Oliver Twist. A Christmas Carol. Charles Dickens was clearly an incredible author, and everyone can name one or two of his books because people are still reading them. But here’s a little secret about old Chucky the Brit: he wrote 20 novels. With the possible exception of Jeopardy champ Ken Jennings, I’m pretty sure no one can name them all -- and even more certain that only a handful of people have actually read them all. Charles Dickens wrote lots of other books besides David Copperfield.

Saturation

In the days of Charles Dickens, there was no automatic spell checker. The typewriter wasn’t invented until the very end of his life, which means he was writing out his novels by hand. That makes his 20 novels highly impressive indeed, though not all of them have been big hits. Charles Dickens tried a technique that’s used in advertising all the time: saturation.

Writing 101: Confessions of an Absentee Author

In a perfect world, I would write every word of my books from the proper typing position, in a comfortable room all alone. I would have an endless supply of coffee and Mountain Dew. And I would type on my laptop, watching the story unfold before my very eyes. This is not how I write my books. I’m about to tell you the truth of how I manage to write books while working an 80-workweek. The truth is, I almost never type books on my laptop. These are the confessions of an absentee author.

To Tell the Truth

Last Thursday, I worked for 16 hours straight. I do mean straight. I don’t take breaks to eat, because clearly I haven’t got the time for that nonsense. I eat one-handed and drive the mouse with the other so I can still get some work done. The Wednesday before last Thursday, I worked for almost 14 hours. Every day, I work all day. When I get finished, I want to sleep. It would be ideal if I could just go ahead and crash then and there with the laptop still on top of me. That way, when I wake up I can just get right back to it. But that’s not very practical, because I still have to brush my teeth. So I don’t go immediately to sleep when I finish working. I may have to fold laundry or clean something up. I’ve got to wash my face and floss. And here is where I find the time to write my books. If you can call it that.

It’s Really Easy to Hate Nicholas Sparks

Sure, I enjoyed "A Walk to Remember," like everyone else. But by the time "The Best of Me" came to theaters, I was thoroughly disgusted. It's really easy to hate Nicholas Sparks...and I do.

Author, Author

Please, don’t bombard me with emails. I know all of you love “The Notebook,” and yes I have seen the film also. But sometimes, I feel a little bit like Nicholas Sparks is writing the same book over and over. In fact, I’ve noticed that lots of authors are writing the same books over and over.

Writing 101 Redux: Book Pricing

Lots of indie authors are great at writing blurbs and creating attractive book pages, but when it comes to pricing things get tricky. For people whose strength lie in words, numbers can get frightening. 

Visit this week's Throwback Thursday Writing 101, and find out what you need to know about pricing your ebooks. 

Writing 101: What You Can Do with Book Clubs

Book clubs are used by readers who want to get together and talk about what they’re reading. But authors can’t afford to overlook these casual clubs. Indie authors should start using them at every possible opportunity. Do it, and you could sell more books and get lots more readers.

The Ends and the Means

For this exercise, convince yourself of two things. First, you are an amazing writer and everyone ought to read your stuff or they are missing out. And second, you are incredibly assertive. You will need both the confidence and the strength, or you may not get anywhere at all. But if you can believe these things, you can start promoting yourself to book clubs in a whole lot of different ways.

Writing 101: What Hasn’t Been Written Yet?

Why aren’t your books selling? It could be that your book is too similar to books that are already out there. Lots of authors find themselves telling the same stories over and over, and I maintain that anything that Shakespeare didn't write, the Greeks already wrote. To that end, lots of Shakespeare stuff looks like the Greek playwrights. So if you’re looking for a new idea anyway, look around the book market. And ask yourself this question: what hasn’t been written yet?

A Tale of Two Writers

So, you probably don’t think of Julia Child as a writer. If you think about her at all, it’s most likely you’re thinking of Dan Aykroyd. That’s what I think about: a tall woman with a high-pitched voice, showing me how to cook a turkey. But Julia Child was also an incredibly successful writer, and not just a world-famous chef. She noticed a book that didn't exist, and she wrote it. That’s pretty much what all authors want to do, and she succeeded at it.

Having a Wild Imagination Isn’t Always a Good Thing

Every author needs to have a good imagination. Writers must envision entire people and settings, visualize action and see scenes play out. It’s good to have an imagination, but not always. Some authors maybe get a little too creative with their thoughts. In some ways, I think Bram Stoker was a little crazy. He had a really wild imagination, and you won’t believe where it took him.

Conspiracy Theory

Most people know Bram Stoker for “Dracula,” that chilling tale of the immortal Count who must drink blood to continue his unholy ways. Fewer people are aware that Stoker was also a conspiracy theorist who wrote what he called non-fiction. One of his most popular --and peculiar-- theories is that Queen Elizabeth I was, in fact, a dude in drag.

Writing 101: Everyday Advertising

In case you haven’t looked at Amazon lately, trust me when I say that there are a lot of books out there. I probably follow at least 5,000 indie authors on Twitter, and I’m sure I’ve barely scratched the surface. So how will you get people to choose your books over another author’s? Everyday advertising can help you a little bit every day.

Hey, Look at Me!

There are small things that you can do on a regular basis to get your book and your name out there. And maybe you won’t start selling a million books a month, but it’s not going to do you any harm if you sell 5extra books a month will it? So try integrating these everyday advertising tricks into your daily routine, and see what happens.

Why Virginia Woolf Walked Away From Life

Virginia Woolf was the product of a broken home, and was raised with her stepfather and several step-siblings. From an early age, she was highly emotional and had trouble coping with the various tragedies that life tossed her way. But Virginia found a way to escape the pain of her mother's untimely death, the tragic shock of her sister's unexpected death and the other sad events that occurred in her life: books. Se was given full access to her father's library, and here she fell in love with the written word. Here, she became Virginia Woolf, the author.

Being Blue

Like lots of authors, Virginia Woolf started publishing her own books. She and her husband purchased a printing press, mostly as a hobby, and pretty soon they turned it into a business. She published several novels using the press.

Virginia Woolf was a prolific writer. She wrote several books in the span of a few short years, and received recognition in her own time as a talented woman of letters.

It sounds like a happy story, doesn't it? Her life was marked by death as a child and young woman, but she discovered a love of words and found her own voice as an adult. She took matters into her own hands, like all the greatest self-published authors, and she made the world notice her. But the story of Virginia Woolf is not a happy one. Like so many others in her family, her story ends in tragedy.