"Once a Thief, Forever a Thief."

Writing Tips from Les Misérables, Part 3

I've been dissecting Les Misérables, and I have great news—my dissection has been published on Hypable.com, an online entertainment magazine with over 16,900 followers. You can view it on Hypable right here. Part three of my dissection will discuss perceptions, a complex antagonist, and epic appeal. (Read part one or part two.)

Plays with Perceptions

Les Misérables takes advantage of perceptions. As I mentioned before, Javert’s perception of Valjean is influenced by criminal stereotypes. Other characters view Valjean differently. The Bishop sees him as a brother. Cosette views him as a caring yet secretive father. But Les Misérables goes beyond other characters’ perceptions.

It also explores how Valjean sees himself. Hugh Jackman pinpointed it well in one of his interviews. He said that Valjean is striving to be a good person, but constantly sees himself falling short.


As an audience, we get a perspective of Valjean that is somewhat different than all of these. Incongruent perspectives make this story more interesting.

Can you make perceptions surrounding your character incongruent? Having a character that is despised by others, but loved by readers is a common example, but still effective because it fosters sympathy for that character.

Valjean’s story wouldn’t have been as powerful if he and all those around him thought him to be a saint. Play with perceptions in your story to see if you can give it more of a punch.

Uses a Complex Antagonist

Javert is an interesting antagonist because he isn’t evil; he isn't really even “bad.” Sure, sometimes the book depicts him as a bit savage, maybe a bit of a maniac, but he’s more devoted and honorable than most people.


Like Valjean, Javert also feels inadequate in his relationship with God. In a different story, Javert could easily have been a hero. The problem isn’t so much his qualities as it is the imperfect laws he’s devoted himself to.

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Help Someone in Need: A Book Bomb for Ben Wolverton

[Updated with best selling rankings at the end of this post]

Ben Wolverton, age 16, was in a tragic long-boarding accident on Wednesday the 4th, 2013. He suffers from severe brain trauma, a cracked skull, broken pelvis and tail bone, burnt knees, bruised lungs, broken ear drums, road rash, pneumonia, and is currently in a coma. His family has no insurance.

Ben is the son of author David Farland, whose books have won multiple awards, and who is widely known as a mentor to many prominent authors, such as Stephenie Meyer and Brandon Mull. Costs for Ben's treatment are expected to rise above $1,000,0000. To help raise money for Ben, we are having a book bomb today, right now on behalf of Ben.

You can learn more about Ben's condition, or simply donate to the Wolverton family here: www.gofundme.com/BensRecovery Join the cause on Facebook.

What is a Book Bomb?

For those that don’t know, a book bomb is an event where participants purchase a book on a specific day to support the author, or, in this case, a young person in serious need: Ben Wolverton.

Having everyone purchase the book on the same day boosts the book's presence online, which leads to even more sales. All money David Farland makes from his book bomb books today will go to Ben's medical expenses.

What Book are We Promoting?

David Farland’s young adult fantasy thriller Nightingale has won seven awards, including the Grand Prize at the Hollywood Book Festival—beating out ALL books in ALL categories. It has been praised by authors such as James Dashner (The Maze Runner), Brandon Sanderson (Wheel of Time), and Paul Genesse (Iron Dragon series), and has received four and a half starts on Amazon. You can read reviews here. Read a review by Hypable.com here.


Some people sing at night to drive back the darkness. Others sing to summon it. . . .

Bron Jones was abandoned at birth. Thrown into foster care, he was rejected by one family after another, until he met Olivia, a gifted and devoted high school teacher who recognized him for what he really was—what her people call a "nightingale."

But Bron isn't ready to learn the truth. There are secrets that have been hidden from mankind for hundreds of thousands of years, secrets that should remain hidden. Some things are too dangerous to know. Bron's secret may be the most dangerous of all.

Nightingale is available as a hardcover, ebook, audio book, and enhanced novel for the iPad. Buy it today to help Ben!

You can purchase it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, on the Nightingale website (purchase print and audio editions here), or, you can get the enhanced version, complete with illustrations, interviews, animations, and its very own soundtrack through iTunes

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"Cosette, Your Father is a Saint"

Writing Tips from Les Misérables, Part 2

In my last post, I explained how Les Misérables evokes strong emotions, contains powerful themes, tells two kinds of truth, and uses all five types of conflict. If you missed it, you can read that post here.

But Les Misérables accomplishes a lot more than all that. Here is part two of my dissection.

Explores Complex Character Relationships

Les Misérables is loaded with complex relationships.

When Valjean takes in Cosette, he is suddenly awakened to what it is like to have someone to love and to have someone love him. And he’s “afraid of failing” her. Their relationship is so precious to him that he doesn’t want to mess it up, so, he refuses to tell Cosette about his past, afraid she will think less of him, that it would somehow ruin what they have. Sure, Valjean gives other excuses for not telling her, but they’re just cover ups.

I get the strong impression that Cosette wouldn’t mind so much about his past, after all, he was stealing bread to save a starving child. Valjean is far more self-conscious and ashamed of his origins than Cosette would ever be. So he hides it from her. This makes his death scene all the more powerful because he hears Marius, one of the only people who knows his true life story, tell Cosette that he is saint. Not a thief. Not a convict. A saint.

But even then, even then, he still can’t bear to tell Cosette his backstory. He asks her to read it after he has passed away.

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Les Misérables: Dissecting a Masterpiece

Writing Tips from Les Misérables

Some stories withstand the test of time. They’re unforgettable. They change individuals and move a people. They influence us, deeply, and leave an emotional imprint on our souls. And they work on multiple levels. Les Misérables is one of those stories. And I’m dissecting it to get a good look at its innards.

Evokes Strong Emotions

Strong stories affect our emotions, significantly. David Farland, in his book Million Dollar Outlines, says that strong stories score high on the “Emotional Richter Scale.” For example, if you’re writing a comedy, it shouldn’t just make people chuckle; it should give them a split in their sides from laughing their heads off.

The best stories draw us in, make us emotionally invested, in the characters and conflicts so that we feel as if we are living the narrative ourselves. Les Misérables takes us through people’s hopes and dreams as well as their hardships, deaths, and disappointments. Few viewers and readers get through the story with a dry eye. The film hit me right in the chest.

Les Misérables not just sad, it’s tragic. Sure, it’s sad that Fantine loses her job, but it’s tragic she has to live in the gutters, compromise her self-worth, and give up her dreams on behalf of her daughter, who lives in shocking conditions herself. Likewise, viewers aren’t just happy that Valjean finds salvation, they are overwhelmed and euphoric, to the point that they’re crying.

This is what we want to recreate in our own stories. Look for opportunities in your narrative to ramp up emotion. Is there a way to make a scene more devastating? More peaceful? More romantic? While still staying true to the story?

Evoking strong emotion is important in storytelling because it’s in that moment the story has the most power to leave an indelible mark on the audience.

Contains Powerful Themes

Great stories do more than stir emotion. They change us. Les Misérables is rich with striking themes. Every time I experience it, I leave promising myself to be a better person.

The story has themes of love with Fantine, Cosette, Marius, and Eponine; sacrifice with Fantine and the revolutionaries; redemption with Valjean; innocence (or the loss of it) with Cosette and Gavroche; and adversity with most the cast; but the strongest theme I see involves mercy.

Les Misérables teaches that mercy is more powerful than justice.

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5 Types of Nonverbal Communication for Characters' Conversations

Lately I've been talking a little about dialogue, but you know what? Almost ALL of communication is nonverbal. Another writer, John Harper wrote this article on nonverbal communication in response to my blog post. If you haven't invested much time into thinking about body language in your writing, hopefully you will after you read this:

93% of all communication is not spoken. It is in the hand gestures, the facial expressions, and the body position where most communication happens.

Just think about this for a moment. 93%. If you spoke seven sentences you would have communicated 93 times through other forms. That is a lot. That is almost all of it. In fact, in some circumstances in fiction, dialogue may not be needed at all to convey character emotion and thoughts. More than likely, however, the verbal communication will instead be backed up by a host of nonverbal communication.

So what does that mean for us writers? Well if you aren't writing about the nonverbal communication then you are ignoring 93% of the information available, and giving the reader only 7% of what is 'happening' in the conversation. Obviously you are not going to write every single piece of nonverbal communication that occurs in a conversation, but ignoring it completely will be at your peril. You should be providing enough detail to allow the reader to gauge the emotion of the conversationalists.

Consider a party: lots of people, lots of conversation, but only 7% of information is being conveyed through spoken words - the content of the conversation. How it was delivered, how the person feels about what they are saying, this is all communication that people can see and pick up on, but it is all nonverbal. It provides subtext by reinforcing what the person is saying or acting as juxtaposition, showing they don't believe what they are saying. It also conveys the relationship between the conversationalists (e.g. alpha male, domineering boss, secret lover, etc).

Nonverbal communication is often subconscious. We do it without thinking. It just happens, an autonomous response to stimuli. Often we try to control our nonverbal communication, e.g. by hiding our surprise or anger. But hiding a response is a conscious decision. Reacting to a stimulus is subconscious, so even if you try to cover up your reaction you will more than likely have a brief flash of true communication before you smother it with something else. Body language is all the movements we make as well as involuntary reactions that show our reactions when we communicate. It is a large part of nonverbal communication and can be separated into the following groups:

1) Communication by Touch

Touching can often occur during conversation. Touch may be friendly, coercive or dominating. It can communicate understanding, comfort, encouragement, flirtation, pleasure, threats, manipulations and assault.

Some people touch frequently, like kids and older people. Those that have been abused are very anti-touch and will likely have strong physical reactions to being touched.

What is your character's background? Why do they touch (or not)? Will the reader understand the touch or misconstrue it?

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The Gift of Awareness

When we talk about improving on our talents and pursuing our goals, there’s a topic I often see overlooked. Awareness. If we don't have it, we won't get far. Awareness is vital to success.

George can be a guy who is ambitious and hardworking, but he won’t reach his goal if he isn’t aware of what he needs to improve on. George can write all day, every day, but if he isn’t aware of what his story is doing (or not doing), he can’t improve on his craft. If Claire puts on her ballet shoes and dances around her house every week, she can’t improve on her technique if she’s not aware of what her weaknesses are.

So, we should strive to be aware. If we’re writing, we should pay attention to what our words, descriptions, dialogue, and punctuation are doing for our reader. Are they doing what we intended? Do we have control over all of these elements? If not, we need to improve on them.

Obviously, we can’t always tell when we aren’t aware of something. But I do believe we can teach ourselves to become more aware. Sometimes we just aren’t aware because we aren’t paying attention or we aren’t used to looking at every aspect of our work. We might have minds that drift, focus in too much, or turn a blind eye to elements we don’t like.

In other scenarios, we can rely on others to critique our work and help us. George’s writing group can mention the weak points in his writing. Claire’s dance teacher can point out her poor posture in plié. This is where the ability to take criticism well becomes really important.

While motivation and effort go a long way, don’t forget to be aware of what you are doing! Strive to be more conscious of whatever you are pursuing. Try to find your blind spots and weaknesses, and improve on them without sabotaging yourself.

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Science Fiction Writer Diann T. Read

“In the past, when I considered important women writers of military science fiction, three names have stood out most prominently: C.J. Cherryh, Lois McMaster Bujold, and Elizabeth Moon. Now I will add Diann Thornley Read to my list. With each novel, it becomes more and more evident just how important she has become to this field.”

—Dave Wolverton, New York Times best-selling author of The Courtship of Princess Leia and, as David Farland, The Runelords series.

For this post, I'm spotlighting Diann T. Read and her science-fiction books. I met Diann last year at one of David Farland's workshops and was excited to see her again a few weeks ago at LTUE, where she instructed and advised other writers. What I like about Diann is that she always has a positive attitude when I talk to her. I've heard our well-read mentor praise her work first hand. And if you're into straight up military science-fiction, you might want to consider reading her work.

About Diann T. Read and Her Book

Originally from northern Utah, Diann Thornley wrote her first story at the age of five and never stopped writing. She taught herself to type—with two fingers—on her father’s ancient manual typewriter at the age of six because it was faster than pushing a pencil. After winning a statewide writing contest, junior high division, at the age of fourteen, she began her first novel, which was based on the Arthurian legends. This endeavor filled most of her high school years and freshman year of college, until a handful of friends introduced her to science fiction by “kidnapping” her to go see an obscure little movie called Star Wars. The rest, as they say, is history.

Ganwold’s Child, first book of the The Sergey Chronicles, took seven years to complete, due to completing college and entering the U.S. Air Force. Following a year-long tour of duty in the Republic of Korea, Diann finished Ganwold’s Child while stationed at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio. Echoes of Issel and Dominion’s Reach, the second and third books in the Sergey trilogy, were also written in Ohio.

Diann transitioned into the Air Force Reserves following Desert Storm, but her military career spanned 23 years and included deployments to Bosnia and Iraq. In December 2000 she married Jon Read, NASA rocket scientist and martial artist, and moved to Texas. Diann retired from the Air Force in June 2009 to return to her writing career and spend more time with Jon.

The Sergey Chronicles

When Tor Books originally published this trilogy in the late 1990s it was called The Saga of the Unified Worlds. It would have been more accurate to call it The Sergey Chronicles because it is, more than anything else, the story of one warrior family—Admiral Lujan Ansellic Sergey, his combat surgeon wife Captain Darcie Dartmuth, and their teenage son, Tristan Sergey—who become caught at the fulcrum of interstellar politics and the demands of their military duty. Wrenched apart and scattered across the galaxy by the brutalities of war, they face captivity, torture, coercion, and epic space battles to be reunited. Only then do their most devastating challenges begin. Having been separated by decades of time as well as lightyears of distance, each of them must confront his or her internal demons to make their family truly whole again, and to defeat a new and more insidious threat to their civilization. Between deadly special operations missions and scenes of deep-cover political intrigue runs a thread that proves how much one family can accomplish with patience, forgiveness, trust, dedication, and unity of purpose.

The Sergey Chronicles are all available on Kindle here and will be available on Nook here.

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What You See is What You Get

(Listen or watch this writing tip on Youtube)

A couple of weeks ago I talked about characters that don't say what they mean. You can read that post here. Basically, most people talk indirectly about their feelings, and often the stronger the emotions are, the more indirect their language.

But not all characters are like that.

Once in a while, you may come across one that has no barrier, no face—what you see is what you get. The dialogue for these characters may be a lot simpler to write, but can still be effective, especially when you need someone to say something others wouldn’t dare.

In Harry Potter, Luna Lovegood always says what she means, which sometimes makes Harry feel uncomfortable. In Half-Blood Prince, she has no problem acknowledging she doesn't have friends. While other people who say this might look for sympathy or attention, Luna doesn't have an ulterior motive. Other times in the novels, she provides straightforward wisdom in ways other characters can't.

In the clip below, notice how she talks openly to Harry. (For my email subscribers, you might need to go to my blog to watch it)



Without embarrassment, Luna explains that nargles have taken her shoes. Without guard, she tells about her mother being dead, how she died, and how it still makes her sad. Without shame, she says that she believes Harry, when few others dare voice it. And when she offers wisdom, she simply speaks her mind.

So, don’t feel like you have to make what all your characters say encrypted and indirect. Maybe your character is the type who says what he means.

Unless you have a good reason that relates to the theme or story line of your narrative, avoid making all characters like Luna. It’s not realistic. How many people do you know like that? Likely less than those who speak indirectly.

On a final note, keep in mind that the majority of characters switch between direct and indirect dialogue, just as people do. A high school student might speak indirectly to her crush but openly to her best friend. Another character may speak openly most of the time, but start talking indirectly when emotionally charged (or vice versa).

You can play around with variations to make the interactions between your characters more interesting.

Luna jumped immediately into my mind when I was trying to think of characters that speak directly, but I had a hard time coming up with more. Do you guys know of any more examples? Also, do you have any thoughts or wisdom to share on direct/indirect dialogue? I'd love to hear them in the comments.
                                                      
Announcement: I recently did a guest post for Konstanz Silverbow's blog. You can check it out here. It's on rekindling your writing drive, for anyone who gets stuck in those "blah" moments.

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Snippets from LTUE, a Writing Conference

Over the weekend I attended LTUE, a writing conference focused (mostly) on fantasy and science fiction. I love LTUE because it’s a great price: $30, (free if you’re a student). For those of you who don’t know, a writing conference is an event where attendees get instruction from the pros, pitch novels, network, get books signed, and basically learn about writing until their brains are saturated. This year at LTUE, award-winning author Megan Whalen Turner was the Guest of Honor. Tracy and Laura Hickman, Brad R. Torgersen, David Farland, Tristi Pinkston, and Howard Taylor, along with plenty of other authors, shared their experience and knowledge with participants like me.


Here are just a few tidbits I learned—

—It’s okay to write a damsel in distress as long as she is a round character who is trying to rescue herself while waiting to be rescued. A great idea is to have her not only be rescued, but also have her rescue someone at another point in the story.

—When creating antiheroes in fiction, you can give them some of these traits and use these tips to make them likeable despite their flaws: make him funny, in love (or show he has a heart), give her a conscience, give him an exceptional talent or “super power,” make her cause more important than her crimes, make him intelligent, make the people the antihero is opposed to worse than he is, make him competent, charming, or cultured, justify the antihero’s actions.

—For a revenge story, make the crime that fosters revenge ongoing rather than a past crime. This ensures that your antagonists don’t become sympathetic victims in the reader’s eyes.

—Be a good writer before you get published. One professional writer shared how she somehow got her books published when she was still a bad writer. She was so embarrassed when she realized how awful her novels were, that she bought them all back and burned them.

—When writing for young adults, avoid the trap of talking down to teenagers by having the mindset that you are talking to an adult that doesn’t have the experience you have.


—Instead of having a character choose between good and evil, try making them choose between two goods or two evils.

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(Don't) Tell Me How You Really Feel

I’ve been thinking about dialogue lately. Particularly, I’ve been interested in dialogue where characters don’t say what they mean. In Making Shapely Fiction by Jerome Stern, Stern notes,

“Advice about dialogue generally starts with discussing what your characters say. It might be better to start off with what your characters don’t say and the way they don’t....the more intense the feelings, the more likely people are to say the opposite of what they really mean. If you want to keep a high level of tension, keep the dialogue evasive, filled with suppressed information and unstated emotion.”

He also says that how a character sits, stands, fidgets, pauses, or adverts eyes can be as important as his or her words.

Three examples of narratives that follow Stern's advice are The Office, The Hunger Games, and The Lord of the Rings.

Here are some clips to illustrate. The first video takes place when Michael Scott, one of the main characters of The Office, leaves Dunder Mifflin. Watch how Jim avoids (and gets Michael to avoid) saying what they actually think and feel. The second video is very short, but you can clearly tell through Ryan's tone and facial expression that his words are an understatement of what he actually thinks.


Often The Office plays with the gap between what characters say and actually think for humor.

For The Hunger Games I couldn't find the clip I wanted, but it's the scene at the starting where Katniss and Gale are talking in the forest. In the book, Gale says "We could do it, you know...Leave the district. Run off. Live in the woods. You and I, we could make it." In the same conversation, when Katniss says she never wants to have kids, Gales says, "I might. If I didn't live here." And later, Gale gets frustrated and snaps at Katniss.

What Gale really wants is to be in a relationship with Katniss, but he can't say it straight out. And Katniss, who never intends to live a lifestyle that includes a significant other, doesn't catch on. Gale's real frustration lies in the fact that Katniss doesn't pick up on what he's getting at. That's why he snaps back at her.

And for my last example, I have the very last scene of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Here is the dialogue between Frodo and Sam.

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Stave Off Self Sabotage

Here's a truth: sometimes we as human beings sabotage ourselves. We keep ourselves from reaching our goals. We hold ourselves back. We talk ourselves down. Sure, not everyone's dreams come true in life, but too often we're the ones that stop ourselves short.

There are some people who literally lack the opportunities to reach their potential. Factors outside their control hinder their abilities. Many victims of worldwide atrocities, such as those in Death Camps, didn’t even have the chance to even try themselves. People who live in poverty might not have those opportunities either.

If you’re like me, you’re blessed enough not to have those road blocks. The difficulties that threaten to stop me from moving forward are usually internal. While they can be hard to handle, we shouldn’t let them stop us from accomplishing our goals. Let’s not be the force that causes us to fail. We have more opportunities and more freedoms than many of our ancestors (and even people alive today) had. And we shouldn’t waste them just because of our own personal blocks.

Sometimes we give up on goals too easily. We give up on our painting because it’s not as good as Michelangelo’s. Or we give up on making it as a writer because it’s difficult. We fail to pursue our desires because we’re insecure, scared, frustrated, lacking faith, hate public speaking, are horrible with oils, or don’t know what the heck a coma splice is.

Don’t let these things stop you.

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Brains, Guts, and Love: A Review of Warm Bodies

Fiction for Readers

Synopsis:

“R is having a no-life crisis—he is a zombie. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse, but he is a little different from his fellow Dead. He may occasionally eat people, but he’d rather be riding abandoned airport escalators, listening to Sinatra in the cozy 747 he calls home, or collecting souvenirs from the ruins of civilization.

And then he meets a girl.

First as his captive, then his reluctant house guest, Julie is a blast of living color in R’s gray landscape, and something inside him begins to bloom. He doesn’t want to eat this girl—although she looks delicious—he wants to protect her. But their unlikely bond will cause ripples they can’t imagine, and their hopeless world won’t change without a fight.”

Who is it for?

Warm Bodies is for those who like a witty, fresh, original story with some humor, action, and romance. If you have an open mind, you can enjoy this one. It’s a short novel that can appeal to both guys and girls, adults and teenagers, although it’s not a YA book.

Review

Wow. When I picked up Warm Bodies, I knew I was in for a fun story. A zombie romance? Ridiculously funny, right? But I wasn’t expecting a story this good.

Marion pulled off a narrative that I think would be difficult for hundreds of other writers to do. He made me believe something could work that I didn’t think possible: a good zombie romance.

I wasn’t expecting Warm Bodies to actually have a significant theme with interesting insights on the human condition. The author hooks his readers with an entertaining concept and flashes of humor in the opening, but then escorts them through themes of hope and love, while asking the questions “What does it mean to be human?” and “What does it mean to be alive?”

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Playing with Foils

 The Basics—

Foil: “a foil is a character who contrasts with another character (usually the protagonist) in order to highlight particular qualities of the other character.” (This definition is from wikipedia, but as an English graduate, I can tell you it's accurate)

Creating a foil for your character helps highlight your characters’ qualities. In Harry Potter, Harry and Voldemort are foils for each other. Harry is protected by love while Voldemort is harmed by it. Harry sacrifices himself to save others. Voldemort sacrifices others to save himself. Harry ultimately greets death like an equal. Voldemort does everything he can to escape it.  Because they are opposites, it's easier for readers to notice their attributes; Harry knows love, has courage, and serves others while Voldemort, in reality, doesn't have any of those.

In Les Miserables, Jean Valjean and Javert are foils. Valjean is full of mercy. Javert is full of justice. Valjean believes people can change and change for the better. Javert doesn't. Valjean breaks laws. Javert goes above and beyond to keep them. Their differences are more obvious when they have each other for comparison.

Often you'll see the protagonist foils the antagonist, (and often they will share similar origins,) but foils can be any two characters.

Taking it Further—

While by definition, foils refer to two characters contrasting one another, you can take it further. You can use foils in other aspects of your story. You can foil settings, creatures, dialogue, relationships, and pretty much anything else. In Lord of the Rings, the elves, with their beauty and grace, foil the orcs—each is more striking because of the other. Do you want to create a stunning setting? Create a foul one to contrast it. The more prevalent the foul, the more beautiful and special the stunning.

This concept is what makes Katniss in The Hunger Games such a remarkable character. The fact she volunteers to take her sister’s place is more astounding when we learn no one else has done such a thing in District 12. Ever. She is extraordinary compared to others.

In my story, I want to highlight how exceptional a particular relationship is, so I’m making sure to include horrible relationships in my plot as well.

Giving a Character Two Foils—

Another way to take this concept further is to give your character two foils and fit her in the middle of the two extremes. I can’t take the credit for this idea; I learned about it from my professor in my Shakespeare class, because Shakespeare used this method.

In Henry IV Part 1, Prince Hal is a character with two foils. On one side of him, there is Hotspur, who is obsessed with glory and honor, on the other side, there is Falstaff, who rationalizes that honor isn’t that important; after all, it doesn’t provide food or guarantee his life. Hal fits in the middle, and as such, the audience perceives him as “just right”--he is the perfect balance.

Like Hal, Frodo has two foils. While going to Mordor, he travels with Smeagol and Sam, who are opposites. Smeagol is obsessed, tormented, and consumed by the Ring. Sam, however, is free of the Ring’s power, having never held it. He sees the Ring for what it really is and regards Smeagol with disgust. Frodo fits in the middle. He relates to Smeagol, perceiving the creature as what he could become, and at times longs to keep the Ring. But Frodo is like Sam in his determination to destroy it. Sam and Smeagol help illustrate Frodo’s complexity.

(And as opposites, Hotspur and Falstaff, and Smeagol and Sam, foil each other as well.)

A Warning—

Be careful what direction you take your foils. For example, you wouldn’t want to make a woman look stronger by making all the men in the story complete idiots. So be smart about it.

So, I'm just wondering, what are everyone else's favorite foiling characters?

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