The V Factor: Break It at Your Peril

Song playing: When You Were Young by the Killers

Spring has sprung, so it’s been a steady 80 degrees outside all week. The pollen is so thick in the air it lands on your car and turns it green. You think I am exaggerating, but just wait. I will have pictures of this phenomenon.

As such, my sinuses are killing me, but I can’t take any allergy medicine, because seriously. Me and medicine. Doesn’t work out well if I want to function the rest of the day. So I shall suffer in not-quite silence.

But my sneezy, itchy nose isn’t what I wanted to talk about today. Something much more important.

There is a plague sweeping our fair writing community, one that must be stopped at all costs. Call up the hobbits, Gandalf, Aragorn, and Legolas will have to leave Roxy for a short period of time (sorry Roxy, it’s his civic duty). It’s time to combat something worse than just a measly overlord trying to enslave the world in darkness.

I am talking about verisimilitude. Which is a really fancy way of saying the character acts believably. Jim Butcher shortened “verisimilitude” to “V-factor” and I think that’s a great idea.

Note how I did not say the character acts in character, although that is part of it.




No, I said “believably”. Here is a short quote from Mr. Butcher’s article on Characters:

“V-factor is the second most important element in creating interesting characters. The most exotic character in the world becomes nothing more than an annoying cartoon figure if he doesn't behave in a consistent and believable manner. (*kaffkaff*JAR-JAR*kaffkaff*)”

Notice how Butcher says “consistent” AND “believable”. Consistency is what we are all the most familiar with. It’s pretty basic Writing 101 stuff. We know that once you establish your character with certain traits, he has to keep acting as you have established, unless you GRADUALLY show his development and change.

If I establish my character Scud as a bad boy who doesn’t like to play by the rules, and bucks up to authority, when Scud gets pulled over by a cop, the reader is already tensing up in his seat. The reader knows there’s trouble brewing, because Scud has a bunch of illegal guns in his trunk, and needs to keep the nice police officer happy, but Scud ALSO can’t seem to keep his mouth shut either.

If Scud doesn’t mouth off to the police officer it might be forgivable. Maybe the threat of illegal guns and getting his kneecaps broken by the goons he’s transporting the guns to is incentive enough to keep quiet. You do have some latitude with your character traits, because you don’t want to make a caricature either. BUT if Scud goes out of his way to be nice to the police officer, takes a bullet for him or something of that nature, the reader will be quicker to call foul.

All of that is consistency, your characters acting within character. We already know about this.



Something that doesn’t get touched upon however, is believability. It’s closely related to consistency, but not the same thing. The good news is that most writers subconsciously have this sucker down pat, so they don’t run afoul of the Believability Police. But lately I have read several books, by well known, published authors—even bestselling authors—whose characters sometimes don’t act in a manner that is believable.

Let me tell you, there is nothing that throws you out of story quicker than a character who doesn’t act in a believable manner.

Here is an exaggerated example: A bomb is about to explode. Your character, a normal smuck who’s worked out of cubical his entire life, diffuses it. Not even a sentence in the beginning of the book about his “Bombing Diffusing and You” class will suspend your disbelief on this one. You just don’t believe that a normal guy would know how to diffuse a bomb IN REAL LIFE.

Note how I said “in real life”. This is where believability comes into play. Yes, I agree that characters should have exaggerated personality traits to entertain or inform, you pick your poison. And yes, fiction is not real life, but a close facsimile to it.

BUT your character still has to act in a manner that we can believe. And our belief comes from our real life experiences. There are all sorts of ways a writer can slip and break the believability of a character. Actually, my earlier post “Characters Who Need to Be Shot” covers one such example, that of a bossy heroine mouthing off to a big bad guy and never suffering the consequences of her actions. I do not believe that a person can act like a know-it-all jerk without there being consequences to those actions. And yet, it happens a lot. Sure, they are masochistic people who are attracted to this sort of person, but not every person in the whole world will bow down or put up with this character’s crap.

I blame movies. Movies are really bad about having a character act in a really extreme way—altruistic, jerkish, naïve—without showing the consequences these actions have on their life.




A character’s personality is just one way you can run afoul of the Believability police. Their job is another area rife with ways to screw up. Whether the character comes up with a convenient skill they didn’t have before, or wouldn’t really know (like bomb diffusing), or acts in a manner someone of that profession, social class, race, color, religion, planetary origin would not, your character is not acting in a manner we can believe. And that breaks our suspension of disbelief.

The flip side to this is with proper motivation, explanation, setting, etc you can make ANYTHING believable. And not only will it be believable, but the story will be more awesome for it. We are writers after all. Given enough time, set up, details, and all of the other stuff you put into your book to make it seem “real”, we can make you believe in people that never existed, worlds that never were, and events that never happened.

My former example? Office smuck who diffuses a bomb? There are several ways to make that work. He could have amnesia and been a bomb tec in his former life. He could be dating a bomb expert. He could secretly be training himself because he wants to be on the bomb squad. He could have no idea what he was doing, and diffuse it on dumb luck. With the right details, anything is believable, but you have to take the time to make it work. You have to set it up so I believe he can diffuse a bomb.

It all boils down to you, as the author, really thinking things through. I know having a smart mouthed character is really fun, and I too can get swept up in the events of the plot. It all makes sense to me, because I can feel the character and I know all the tiny reasons behind what they do. But you have to make sure you look at all sides of your story, character and plot alike.

You also have to make sure your character isn’t just a puppet to the plot, or your idea. You have to make sure the character acts like a real person.

It’s very inconvenient when a character acts like a real person, because then you tend to write your characters into situations you have NO IDEA how to get them out of. But think about it—if you can’t see how he’s going to get himself out of trouble the first time around, the reader won’t either. And the story will be much more organic and thrilling for it.

But how do you do this? I have droned on and on about the evils of breaking the V-factor, but how to do make people believe in the unbelievable?



Jim Butcher has some suggestions in his article on Characters at his Live Journal.

And I have some as well.

First, make a list of what your character has to be able to do by the end of the book to make your plot work. He doesn’t have to be able to do it in the beginning, but by the end of the book he has to know how to diffuse a bomb. Or if your character is shy, and you’re writing a poignant coming of age, he has to get over his fear of speaking onstage.

Work out some steps for him to take to get to that goal. Then work out how you’re going to write that into the story, hopefully in a subtle manner. Not “Gee Bob, I sure am glad I took that How to Diffuse a Bomb at-home study course. And you poo-pooed it!”

Also, examine your character from every angle. Spend time with people in his profession, if you can. Cops don’t just go around breaking the law, you might note. Lawyers tend to work really long hours. Try to collect as many details about your character and what that means for a person in real life with those flaws, those merits, that profession. Notice how the office jerk does has dates on Friday night, but no family to go home to on the weekends. Notice how the shy mousey girl gets walked on by other people.

Remember. The devil is in the details. Don’t let something so important ruin an otherwise perfectly good book. And relax. As I said, most people inherently grasp this concept. Once you know what you’re looking for, it will be easier to spot lapses in V-factor where you made a quick jump to further the plot.

What do you guys think? Am I raving mad? Any examples of blatant disregard for how people act in real life?

How to Write a Novel 1: Developing Ideas

Quote: “Good ideas are common—what’s uncommon are people who’ll work had enough to bring them about.” ~Ashleigh Brilliant

Song playing: What It Is to Burn by Finch

Today I thought I would blog about something really basic, since it just might be the single most asked question of writers: Where do you get all your ideas?

But once I started writing out my thoughts, I realized that finding ideas only scratched the surface to writing a novel. So, for the first time on this blog, I bring you a post series! It’s called the How to Write a Novel, and each post will cover some aspect of writing. I will try to keep the post length manageable, and stay with my personal experiences, rather than cover every single aspect of the process. There are (wonderful) entire books written on the subject that can explain it in more detail than I can here, so this series will hopefully serve as a springboard for the newbies and maybe jog some ideas for seasoned writers.

So, without further ado, I bring you:

How to Write a Novel: Developing Ideas

See, there’s this magical land of ideas. They grow like weeds over there, and the citizens of Idea Land can’t seem to get rid of them. When you become a writer, you get a special key to unlock the doorway to this land, Narnia-style. Some people use their wardrobes, some people use their closet, mine is in the basement near the laundry room. You go to Idea Land with a basket, and pick up a bunch of ideas that seem like they would fit, but there’s a limit on how many back you are allowed to bring back with you, much like trying on clothing in a dressing room. Usually the limit is three, but when you get to be really popular/talented like Stephen King or William Faulkner, you can bring more back with you…

Just kidding. There is no such place as Idea Land, sad as that is. Or there is, but it’s actually just the plain old real world. Not quite as magical and mystical, and there is no idea limit (thank heavens, that would be more annoying than the clothing limit. You’d have to keep going between the real world and Idea Land and trying new ideas on, “No, do you have one with purple monkeys? Those hedgehogs make my butt look big,” Or “I want to write another book with Scud in it, do you have any plots that he might participate in?”).

Sometimes lightening does strike, and out of nowhere, you get an amazing idea for a plot, theme, characters, and conflict are all laid out for you on a silver platter, like an early Christmas present from your muse. But you can’t wait for that to happen, and for me personally, those moments come more frequently when I am actively pursing ideas elsewhere (yes, my muse is a little fickle, what can I say).

Ideas are all around you. I know, you’ve heard that particular chestnut before, but it’s true. For reals, guys, for reals! All you have to do is be observant of your surroundings, of the people around you, and wave the magical wand of “What if” and the magical staff of “Why?” (or “Why come?” like I asked as a child) and presto chango! you have more ideas than you can shake a kitten at.*

Let me give you some examples, which have actually happened to me. Witness a writer in her natural habitat!

I used to work at a gas station. I had a regular customer come in every Friday and buy a six-pack of cheap beer. One Friday he says, “You wanna see a picture of my daughter?”

I nod, and he whips out a battered, fake leather wallet. He opens it to a picture of a magazine clipping. It’s a pretty, young brunette, modeling a green sweater. The picture was obviously clipped out of a department store magazine, but he has it tucked into the plastic picture holders.

I smile and nod, and he leaves. Most people who are saner than I would simply shrug it off as weird, and move on with their lives, but not me. I was intrigued. My brain whirled away, wondering all sorts of things. Is that woman really his daughter, or is he stalking her? Is he mentally unstable from losing his entire family in a car wreck, saw a woman in a magazine one day who resembled his daughter, and convinced himself the young woman is his daughter? Or is that woman really his daughter, and he had a bad divorce, and his ex-wife won’t let him see her or even have a picture of her, so the only way he can see her is through her modeling career?

You see how that works? One little event, and I suddenly have all sorts of ideas. I could pick any of those questions and flesh them out into a plot. I could let it stew, and combine it with another, previously unrelated idea that together, make an amazing book.

And it doesn’t just have to be stranger’s weird little idiosyncrasies, though I once saw a checkout girl wearing white gloves. Of course I wondered why, and thought she might be afraid of germs, or have poison ivy, but again, it doesn’t just have to be when someone does something a little off. It could be a mundane situation, and you ask yourself why, and what if until you have an interesting tale.

For example, you see a mother pushing a shopping cart full of groceries and kids, but she’s dressed for a night out on the town. You could ask yourself what would prompt someone to do that. Why would she get all dressed up to go the grocery store? Is this the only time she gets out of the house, so she wants to look nice, even if it’s just to the store? Is she divorced and hoping to catch the eye of the store manager?

Conversely, you could start with a situation, and move on from there. Like, what if someone got into an accident that disfigured their face? What if that person was a movie star? What would she do then? Try to continue working? Get plastic surgery and pretend it never happened? Hunt down every picture taken with her scarred face? What if one of those photographers didn’t want to give it up? What would she do to get it back?...

You get the point. To find ideas, all you have to do is wonder what would happen if someone was put in a situation, or wonder why they are in that situation to begin with. The situation could be normal, like shopping at the store, or it could be extraordinary, like the predicaments our friend Jack Baur seems to find himself on 24.

But I am sure you’re vaguely aware of this method of Idea Hunting, so let me impart a few different ones on you.

In addition to the song-lyric method I mentioned in an earlier post, I also like to think about major figures in history. And wonder why? And what if? Like, what if a character was in a position like Judas? What would it take to betray your friend and mentor? What if in the end it wasn’t worth it, the goal you were trying to achieve failed? Would you ever forgive yourself?

Or the infamous dictators of the world. What would it take to get someone to that point? (this is assuming you want a sympathetic character, not “He’s a dictator because he loves squashing human rights, grrr!”) What if he had the best of intentions? What if because of the economic stresses of the time, he had to become stricter with the national policies? What if he honestly thought he was doing what was best for his country? What if he thought he would make the moral sacrifice for them, and become the “bad guy”, like a sin eater or Batman in the Dark Knight, in order to protect his country?
(Disclaimer: I am in no way endorsing the actions of history’s dictators (I am looking at you Mussolini, Stalin, Hitler, etc) but just trying to show you how you can put a different spin on things. I now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.)

Or you could look at historical events, and wonder why. Actually, history is pretty ripe for the picking as far as ideas go. If you research, say, the events that lead up to the World Wars, it could give you ideas about how seemingly unrelated events can be connected.

Most of my ideas arrive to me as a situation between two characters, or one character in a really tough spot. I find it helps develop the plot if I have a back and forth dynamic. These two characters can be lovers, friends, enemies, family members, but it usually starts with two people in a situation.

This is of course not a plot. Please don’t confuse the two. “A man loses his family and is obsessed with a magazine model that looks like his daughter” is not a plot, nor is it even a premise by some definitions (by some definitions, a premise also includes the resolution of the idea: A man loses his family and becomes obsessed with a magazine model that looks like his daughter. He stalks her until he gets thrown in jail, where he subscribes to her new magazine). A plot includes the conflict and sometimes even the theme of the book.

Once you have the idea, the premise and the plot become much easier to develop. Sometimes you think of them all at the same time, but usually one piece of the puzzle will come to you first, and it’s up to you to coax the idea into something you can write an entire novel about.

Which is what our next post is about: From Idea to Plot.

How about you? Where do you get your ideas from?

*No actual kittens were harmed during the making of this post.