Does ChatGPT Spell Doom for Writers?

Look around at the world and notice not what is there…but who is missing. No longer will you see a man on stilts at twilight, meticulously lighting gas lamps up and down the street. You won't find a friendly milkman making deliveries. And the men wearing the long beaks who scooped up plague-ridden bodies were out of work in the 1400s. Innovation and technology always usher in new changes. But when something new begins, something else ends. And when it comes to ChatGPT, is this the end of human writing as we know it?

The Ultimate Ghostwriter

So what is ChatGPT? Depending on who is answering, this is a fascinating new innovation full of possibilities...or a demon invention summoned from the blackest pits of Hell. ChatGPT is actually an AI writing tool that can, for all intents and purposes, write anything. Articles, screenplays, entire novels even. You plug in some basic elements of what you want and the darn thing generates humanlike writing that can be difficult to tell from actual human-created content.

And if learning about ChatGPT gives you a strange sinking feeling and you feel the darkness of despair creeping ever closer to you, then you are probably a writer. You might even find yourself wondering if you're about to join the ranks of the now-useless, like those plague guys or the old gas lamp lighters.

Are Human Writers Obsolete?

The recent writer's strike largely involved ChatGPT and concerns about how this tech will be used moving forward, though many of the headlines focused on pay disputes and other issues surrounding the strike.

Writers on all levels have reason to be curious and cautious about this tech. For the first time in human history, a machine can write dialogue and plot and actually tell a story. So you might feel a lot like the gas lamp guy the day the light bulb was invented.

And yes, it is a little bit scary. AI writing software is sophisticated enough to understand grammar and syntax and even slang. It can churn out entire novels with extreme quickness and write words much faster than any human ever could.

But don't throw out your old plague mask yet, so to speak. Because for all their sophistication, there is something that machines and tech can never do: create ideas. 

You can teach a computer how to write like a human and play chess like a human and answer questions like a human would. You cannot teach a computer how to actually be creative. Computers can study all of literature and can even create stories that are similar to stores created before. But a computer will never truly come up with a creative idea for one very good reason.

Only humans can do that. Only humans can invent. No computer program can really be taught how to do that. And as long as that continues to be the case, human writers are still needed.

Do You Know the Words Writers Are Never Supposed to Use Anymore?

You may have noticed that people are being a bit more careful about what they say, these days. Look back at movies from the 1990s and you’ll find yourself gritting your teeth and groaning over extremely casual racism, bigotry and misogyny that is peppered all over scripts. The world has changed and the way we use words has changed, too. You can probably think of several words that you know are bad, words you wouldn’t put in your book unless there was an extremely strong reason to do so, words that are still controversial and can still get books banned in many places around the world. Mark Twain’s books are still being fought over for just this reason.

But there are many words writers aren’t supposed to use anymore beyond the obvious ugly slurs. Do you know what they are, and have you modified your writing? Because 20 years from now, you don’t want people gritting their teeth and groaning over something you have written.

The Power of Words

 

Words have power, as every single writer knows. Many of them have multiple meanings. Say a certain word and it can create a certain feeling. You know the words you could say to a man to make him feel angry, or small. You know what to say to a woman to insult her. You know these are bad, ugly words. But many words cause feelings and carry certain meanings that you might not intend. Many words are falling out of use and in some publications, they can’t be used at all. It’s up to you whether or not to use these words in your writing, but give yourself the option by finding out which words writers really aren’t supposed to use any more.

Family: While it seems innocuous enough, the word “family” has come to carry a lot of weight. Politicians and talking heads use this word a lot and for many, it has become a bit of a painful word. Not everyone has a nuclear family with parents and siblings, grandparents and uncles and all the rest.

And while the word can be used to describe any group of friends or individuals who become a family, the word still conjures up images of that nuclear group consisting of mother, father and babies. And for many different reasons, the image and the word can be hurtful, or provoke other unpleasant feelings.

Master: Until you start really paying attention to how often this word is used, you don’t really realize how often this word is used. It’s always been common in real estate. Master bedroom, master bath. Whether it’s a master room of some kind or a person who is a master of a game or a skill, the word appears enough that everyone knows just what it means. A master is the biggest or the best or the leader. And the word also has a very long and ugly history not just in the U.S., but all over the world. Because during the days when slavery was legal, the master was the person holding the whip. Real estate companies are now trying to avoid using this word, even when it’s being applied to something as innocent as a bedroom.

Though it fell into common use for over 100 years after slavery was abolished in the U.S. and in other superpowers around the globe, the word has incredibly ugly origins and many people are finally acknowledging that by refusing to use it.

Slave: Speaking of this ever-sensitive topic, writers for many publications are being told not to use this word. In fact, it’s best to avoid the term slavery when possible, as well. Rather than saying that someone was a former slave or referring to a person as a slave, the more appropriate phrasing is to say that a person was enslaved.

For example:

Akhat the Egyptian was a slave in the 19th century B.C.E.

Akhat the Egyptian was enslaved in the 19th century B.C.E.

The meaning is the same but the wording is just very slightly tweaked. Why this change? Because slave is not an occupation or a life goal. One does not become a slave the way a person becomes a baker. Slavery is put upon a person. It is forced. Having this thing forced upon a person does not make them that thing. You can force a dog to dress like a cow. You can put him in a little cow outfit, but the dog is not a cow. The dog is in a cow costume. A human being does not become a slave. They become enslaved. It is forced on them. This is just a little difference, but it does make a difference.

This small change in language draws a verbal line between choosing to be a slave, which no one in four billion years of Earth history has ever done and never ever will, and having it forced upon them. Writing enslaved instead makes it clear that this was a forced condition, not a way of life.

Get My Newest Book!

My new book is coming out next week! If you've ready my writing 101 tips, you will love my newest book. 

How to Write a Book

How to Write a Book is the first volume in my Write Better Write Now series. This book has all the tips and info writers need to know to write a book. The chapters cover crafting characters, writing believable settings, performing research and making all the decisions that indie authors have to make, not to mention all the controversial topics that are difficult to write about like race, profanity, sex and more.

What the Writer Strike is All About and What it Means to Indie Authors

As of the start of the month of August, the Writer's Guild of America has been on strike for 100-plus days. But why should indie authors care?

 

What's the Fight About?

The WGA is a labor union. This gives members of the union the right to collective bargaining. As union employees, the members of the WGA are under contract. When the business entity or entities that a union works for offers a contract that most members of the union do not like and do not want, they can then choose to use their collective bargaining power to force that company or companies to meet the demands of the union by going on strike.

To put it plainly, a majority of the members of the WGA do not like the contract they were offered. Writer's strikes are not uncommon and in the past, the WGA has used their right to strike in order to get more money for their work.

But this strike is very different. This strike is about money, sure, but it's also about a much deeper issue that affects all writers everywhere, union and indie alike: AI writing software.

How the WGA is Standing Up to ChatGPT and AI Writing

AI has been creeping into storytelling for several years. When Netflix recommends new movies and shows to you, that's AI at work. When Harrison Ford gets to be younger than he is in a film that's AI, too. Now, programs like ChatGPT are capable of writing movie scripts, TV show episodes. Blog posts, articles, novels. And that's why this issue touches all writers. Soon, directors won't need scriptwriters because they can simply type some prompts into a software program. Soon, writing a novel could be as simple as coming up with the root of an idea. And this is why the WGA is taking a stand now, and trying to establish some rules and receive compensation when AI is used in place of flesh-and-blood writers.

That makes it a pretty big deal. The Writers Guild of America and now the Screens Actors Guild of America are united on one side of the bargaining table. That is, roughly, all the Hollywood scriptwriters and all the Hollywood actors and actresses. They stand against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. It's the talent versus the bosses, in short.

The writers and creatives say that under the new contracts, producers are seeking permission to use AI to generate new dialogue and create new scenes, extensively changing existing scripts, without the writers' knowledge or consent. As for the actors, they allege that producers are seeking the right to use their digital images and likenesses to create new performances using AI technology.

You can see why the creatives might not like that. And perhaps you can also see how this is a watershed moment for all writers everywhere. What happens in these negotiations could very well set the tone for how writers are compensated regarding AI software going forward, not just in Hollywood but in all industries. What about articles you write online that are significantly altered by AI? Should your name still be on them? Should you receive less compensation because AI was used? 

 

 

There are lots of questions to ask, lots of angles to consider and this is why the strike continues to drag on and on and on. It's brand-new territory and it's playing out right now, in real time. Precedents are being written in the moment. Decisions made today could affect a generation of writers or more.

It's pretty thrilling stuff. Anything brand-new is scary. Once upon a time, seeing the wheel for the first time terrified somebody. Simply using metal to cut a piece of meat was a gigantic innovation. AI writing software could be a civilization-changing innovation…or it could be a flash in the pan, a fad that quickly fades like others have done before. There is no way of knowing what will happen with AI software in the future, which is exactly the point of the strike. Writers and actors are seeking some protections now, some rules and a foundation laid in place now, because AI tools are only going to expand going forward from here.

What's the solution? What's the answer to the problem? Where do you fall in this debate? Plugging the questions into an AI program won't help.

For now, some solutions still take human minds and human words. Eventually, that will be enough to resolve the contract disputes and end the strike. Because for now, humans are still the ones leading the discussion. In a few years, depending on how these talks go today, that might not be the case. 

New Book Release

If you like the Writing 101 tips at this blog, you will love Jade's new book! Jade Varden's newest book will be released this spring and it will be full of all the tips authors need to know to write their books. Stay tuned for more details about Jade's newest, How to Write a Book.

 

In the meantime, check out Jade Varden's library of books at Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jade-Varden/author/B006QD4LUA

10 Times Egyptian Pharaohs Straight Up Lied About History

The might of the Egyptian pharaohs continues to resonate throughout history, with many of their names remaining famous and highly revered even centuries after the fact. Egyptians concerned themselves with preserving their bodies, their spirits and their legacies for all eternity…and in many respects, they succeeded. But the legend of the Egyptian pharaohs isn’t so much a gift of the gods as it is the result of very well-thought-out propaganda campaigns, clever lies and positively brilliant marketing.

 

The Divine Birth of Queen Hatshepsut


Hatshepsut was probably the first female pharaoh of Egypt to rule the kingdom in her own right. And in a patriarchal society like ancient Egypt, this was a tough task. She did many things during her time on the throne to show that she was capable of being the leader of the empire and had many works of art created that would depict her this way.

Many pharaohs linked themselves to the gods in various works of art. Hatshepsut really drove this point home to make it quite clear that was divinely ordained to rule over Egypt. Her temple is carved with many scenes, including a birth scene in which the king of all gods, Amun, impregnants Hatshepsut's mother. This made Hatshepsut the daughter of the king of gods himself. Not a bad lineage.

This clearly made her a legit pharaoh and one with the backing of the gods, no less. Of course, this was all a lie. Hatshepsut was certainly a mortal woman and probably not the result of a divine birth or godly conception.

Amenemhet I Biography


In the real story, Amenemhet was not born royal. He was a vizier, which is sort of like being a prime minister, for the guy who was pharaoh before him. But you know how rumors work. Once you plant the right one and it takes root, it spreads like weeds. Such is the story of Amenemhet, which was quite a clever bit of self-marketing.

The story was written out on a papyrus that begins with a prophecy, which is always a great place to begin a story. According to the prophecy, Amenemhet was going to be a king. The prophecy went on to say that life would be terrible in Egypt but then, a king would come from the south. His name would be Ameny.

According to the prophecy that was written after all these events actually transpired, Ameny would take both the red and white crown of Egypt and unify the Upper and Lower kingdoms. And though he was common-born, or born of the people, his name would cause the people to rejoice.

It's a great story but it's an even greater way to self-promote and it's a great example of how Egyptian pharaohs loved to write their own lie-strewn legends.

Battle of Kadesh


The Battle of Kadesh was probably the biggest battle the world had known up to that point, which specifically was the year 1274 B.C.E. Upon returning from battle, Ramses II ordered a huge mural carved on the walls of his memorial temple to commemorate the great battle.

What a site it is. The mural shows the mighty pharaoh Ramees himself crushing Egypt's sworn enemy, the Hittites, like the bugs they are. The mural depicts the pharaoh, and Egypt, as the grad victors of the battle. It is awe-inspiring stuff. And it's basically all a lie.

The Egyptian and Hittite empires were trading friends and sometimes foes, often battling each other and fighting for the rich Levant region and its natural resources. This led to an all-out war in 1274, when things came to a head in the huge battle of Kadesh.

The artifacts uncovered in the Hittite empire relating to the battle tell a different tale than the story Ramses sold to his own people, and to history. The Treaty of Kadesh, the oldest peace treaty ever discovered so far, shows that Egypt actually made a great many concessions to the Hittite empire. The Hittites gained a number of new cities and lands and the treaty is clearly a better deal for their empire than for Egypt.

There's no mention of signing the treaty on the great wall Ramses commissioned, of course.

Ramses the Not So Great


Ramses II, known in history as Ramses the Great, ruled Egypt from 1279 to 1300. And according to all the art about him, he was an incredible warrior-king. With the might of a god, Ramses led his people to victory after victory as he quelled the Libyans nearby. He claimed their lands for Egypt because he was a glorious pharaoh.

It's a big whopper of a lie, as is a lot of the image of Ramses the Great. Most of his greatness is just for show and in reality, his reign was far more nuanced. One of his biggest lies concerned neighboring Libya, which Ramses claimed to have subjugated. Evidence shows that actually, Ramses maintained a peaceful relationship with the neighboring kingdom and even relied on their knowledge. It was a much more symbiotic relationship, though in Egypt the monuments all proclaimed that great Ramses had basically annexed this land.

Amenhotep III is Favored by the Gods


Amenhotep III arguably didn't have the most stunning reign during his tenure as pharaoh. But you wouldn't know that to look at his fabulous mortuary temple. First, it's decorated with two enormous statues of the pharaoh himself guarding the entrance to the temple.

That's not all. There's also the god, Hapi, bringing two symbols of Egypt together. All this represents Amenhotep III bringing together the two parts of Egypt, Upper and Lower. Amenhotep III actually lost control over these kingdoms during his reign. But as the temple shows, his reign over both was actually ordained by the gods.

Of course, it was just a great sculpture. The fantastic imagery doesn't at all represent the reality of his reign. Which isn't really such a bad way to do things. If you tell everyone you were awesome after you die, it's not like they can really argue with you.

The Battle of the Delta


The Battle of the Delta is recorded in the longest hieroglyphic inscription ever found, at least so far. The battle was waged around the year 1175 B.C.E. when Egypt was under the rule of Ramses III. This is the day the Sea Peoples came to the shores of Egypt.

History is quite unsure who these people were, where they came from or precisely what they were so upset about. What is known is that they burned and pillaged their way across the known world, razing the main cities of Mycenean Greece to the ground. The great city of Troy was looted and burned and the Hittite empire was attacked so savagely that nothing of the great empire remained by the time the marauders were done with them.

This is the terrifying force that descended upon Egypt. Two battles took place, one by land and one by sea. But it was the battle on the sea that proved decisive. And according to the huge inscription Ramses ordered to be created, he totally kicked butt. He drove the Sea Peoples back into the sea, soundly defeating them in the name of Egypt.

And his version of events almost certainly is not true. Historically, the aftermath of the battle does not represent a time of strength and success for Egypt. In fact, Egypt was never the same after that battle and remained greatly weakened for the ensuing centuries. Meanwhile, the so-called survivors of the battle settled in the Levant, the most desirable and hotly contested land in the entire Egyptian empire. That doesn't seem like much of a defeat.

From Zero to Hero


Reigning as pharaoh from 1872 to 1854 B.C.E., Senusret III was an extremely young pharaoh when he first was crowned. Luckily, he reigned over a highly artistic time in Egypt and he had the support of wealthy patrons. Lots of art was created celebrating the young king and in a few years, he had become an idealized warrior-king, with monuments and artwork and depictions of his prowess in battle appearing throughout the Egyptian kingdom.

The artwork essentially lifted him to god status, turning him into an epic and legendary figure even in his own time...in spite of the fact that he was incredibly young and had achieved very little in his reign when this image was first cultivated. That's some seriously good propaganda.

The So Called Hyksos Invasion


It all happened around 1800 B.C.E. But what happened depends on who told the story. According to Egyptian pharaohs, the land was invaded by the awful Hyksos people. They were ruthless invaders, foreigners who wrested control of northern Egypt away from the rightful rulers by force. They created chaos, disaster, terror in the streets.

Evidence strongly suggests that the Hyksos were more immigrants than invaders and may have even invented the Egyptian alphabet. The archeological record suggests that they came to Egypt quite peacefully and ruled their area of the empire in relative quiet until Egyptian pharaohs seized the land...after a rather extensive mud-slinging campaign that painted them as violent offenders.

Cleopatra Was the Descendant of a Goddess


Cleopatra's name has become synonymous with sex appeal, cleverness, seduction and power. But that's the modern version of good old Cleo, Egypt's very last pharaoh. She was not popular in her own time among her people and had to murder quite a few relatives before she managed to reign as pharaoh, more often co-ruling with one of her husband-brothers at her side instead.

The Egyptian people weren't quite sure how to take Cleopatra and they weren't exactly chanting her name when she arrived in Alexandria with Caesar, who forcibly reinstated her as pharaoh over the land. She started to strongly associate herself with the goddess Isis, using images and symbols of the goddess to inform her own portraits. She was incredibly careful about her image and made the association between herself and Egypt's most powerful goddess clear as a way to prove she was a worthy pharaoh.

Though Cleopatra's image and legend would continue to grow, the goddess Isis suffered guilt by association. The Isis cult in Rome became incredibly unpopular after Cleopatra's suicide, particularly in Rome.

 The Greatest Pharaoh of Them All


You've heard of names like Ramses the Great and Tutankhamun, Nefertiti and Cleopatra. But who was the greatest pharaoh of them all? If you take a look around Egypt, or if you ever did in the last 5,000 years, you might draw the conclusion that the greatest of all rulers of this land was clearly the guy who built that really massive, really impressive pyramid.

To get specific, that pharaoh was (probably) Khufu. Historians believe he is the one who had the great pyramid itself built, the largest ever constructed in the world and the tallest building in the entire world for thousands of years.

Greatness achieved. But Khufu was far from Egypt's greatest pharaohs by most standards. He certainly wasn't the first, the last, the richest or the most powerful. And while the Great Pyramid is certainly impressive, it's not the biggest building ever built in Egypt.

Most of Khufu's reign can be summed up in that pyramid, which was strictly a monument to him. There are no public spaces for the people to use and no practical service areas provided by the massive structure. It serves no purpose other than to announce to Egypt, and all of history, that Khufu was the greatest of them all.

But today, most people have no idea who Khufu was or know of anything he did other than use up a ton of resources on building a giant monument for his own acclaim.

Brooklyn Museum - Hatshepsut

DBPedia - Battle of the Delta

Gale - Archaeology: Propaganda of the pyramids

Gettysburg College - Androgyny in the Ancient World: The Intersection of Politics,

Religion and Gender in the Art of Hatshepsut

History - Cleopatra

Institutional Scholarship - Isis and Cleopatra in Rome : how one of history’s most famous queens influenced an Egyptian cult in the heart of the Roman Empire

Judith Starkston - Propaganda and Reality: Hittites vs Pharaoh Ramesses

Morehead State - Cleopatra as the Goddess Isis

Osirisnet - Senusret III

PBS - Ramesses II

Penfield - The New Kingdom - Part Two and the Age of Decline

The School For Excellence - Ancient History

Science - ‘Invasion' of ancient Egypt may have actually been immigrant uprising

The University of Manchester - New evidence shows might of Pharaoh Ramses is fake news

U.S. Naval Institute - The Last Great Pharaoh vs. The Sea Peoples

Wondrium Daily - Germination of Effective Propaganda: The Egyptian Dynasty XII

World History Encyclopedia - Senusret III

How Common Are Sociopaths, Really?

You find them all the time in books, lurking around. They are charming, they are sexy, they are dangerous. The hot but scary sociopath has become a common story trope. But how common is this person in life? Do you stand any chance of really knowing a sociopath…and has pop media made this way more of a thing than it actually is?

Devil's Snare

In story, the sociopath is often highly attractive, intriguing, alluring and mysterious. They are here to draw in the hero, to weave a sexy spell and ultimately, to be bested by the hero. Outsmarted and outmatched at last.

It was probably quite titillating once upon a time, but now it has become rather shopworn. Some writers combat this by trying to do something new with their sociopath. Often, a twist is employed where no one, even the reader, knows if this person is really a sociopath.

And from a statistics standpoint, probably not.

What About Your Friends?

Everyone has pretty much met someone they suspect of being a sociopath. If you want to get down to it, millions of people are sociopaths, psychopaths or have some other antisocial personality disorder. However, there are billions of people on the planet. Only about 1 to 4 percent of the entire world population can fit into one of these classifications. That's an extremely small amount of people.

At best, you will encounter a sociopath, psychopath or someone with an antisocial personality disorder at a ratio of 1:100, being very generous about it. Lots of people do not actually know, really know, 100 different people well. The chances of actually meeting and knowing a sociopath are very small…certainly, a lot smaller than all the stories out there that heavily feature such personality types would have you believe.

Fixing the Trope

People with personality types like sociopaths and psychopaths definitely make for compelling storytelling. But they don’t make for very realistic storytelling. Most readers, the vast majority of them in fact, never have and never will encounter one of these personality types.

Most people are not so easy to pinpoint. Often, people don't fit into a diagnosis or personality type. The best characters are highly fleshed out and have many different traits, both positive and others that are less so. Sometimes, it's best to avoid trying to make characters fit a specific disorder and simply write them more like real people...who continue to defy all logic and easy labeling.

Characters don't need to fit a trope or a type, because most human beings don't.

The Simp Best Friend

He's always there to wipe the tears off the heroine's cheeks, the backup date when the dream date falls through, the ear she can tell all her secrets to. He's hot in a low key way and there is no question that he's hopelessly in love with the main female character, who is utterly clueless to his affection. He's the simp best friend and…he kinda sucks. There may be no good way to put him in your story. Maybe he doesn't belong at all.

 

 

 Nice Guys Finish Last

He's in the friend zone but he's hopelessly in love with said friend, a girl who is typically under the spell of a much cooler guy. He listens to her, he notices everything about her and for reasons, he doesn't make a move until well after the aforementioned dreamboat cool guy breaks her heart.

On the surface, this all seems pretty romantic. He finally makes his move right at the end of the story and just like that, the girl suddenly sees him for the first time. They kiss at last. What a happy ending.

Except that it's not. Because this character trope is super stale and honestly, unattractive. In the real world, the platonic best friend is very rarely a super hot, totally sweet and slavishly devoted would-be romantic interest. This is something that is far more common in fiction than in life.

So…should this tired trope be retired altogether? Is it time to blacklist this guy from stories or what?

Fixing the Trope 

The simp best friend has become a super common trope in stories, and that means it’s predictable. To make your story feel less boring, some a new way to use this trope. Flip expectations by finding some new way to use this character.

It’s okay to use common story tropes, but if you use them in a new way readers will appreciate it. They’ll think they know what’s coming. If you can surprise them with what actually happens, they’ll love it. Readers like having their expectations subverted. Try it and find out how much better the story becomes when you take those common tropes and change them all around.

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.

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