Irony

What's irony all about? Most simply put, irony happens when there's a gap between what's stated on the surface and what's meant deep down at the heart of things. It's a powerful force in storytelling, so know it and use it well.

In our lesson we talked about four major kinds of irony, with examples. There are other types of irony, but these are the ones we see most often:

• Verbal Irony - this is where you say the opposite of what you mean. Suppose your friend drops a hammer on your foot and through your tears and clenched teeth you say, "Oh, no, that didn't hurt at all." That's verbal irony.
• Dramatic Irony - this kind of irony happens when there's an audience who knows more than the characters do. For instance, if a character is making what he thinks is a good decision, but the audience can see it's a really stupid move, that's dramatic irony.
• Situational Irony - in this kind of irony, someone does something in order to get a certain result, but it turns out to be totally counter-productive. Sort of like pumping up a slightly under-inflated car tire, only to make the stem valve blow out, and thus the tire becomes completely flat. Yeah, it's happened to me.
• Cosmic Irony - in this kind of irony, the universe itself seems to be out to thwart your intentions. For example, we could try to save the world by putting a stop to global warming, only to unwittingly plunge the planet into an ice age.

Next week's lesson: Betrayal 

How to Build Awesome Characters

In this week's lesson, presented by Chrysanne, we discussed how to pack your characters full of awesome.

• Is there something you're interested in, that you know a lot about? Chances are, other people will find it interesting too. Make your character interested in that same thing, and use their knowledge and interest in your story.
• Give your character an interesting, unusual, and best of all, painful backstory.
• Personality quirks are always fun.
• Readers love a character with awesome skills.
• Interesting supernatural powers can also lend awesomeness to a character.
• Characters need weaknesses and fears too. Use a little imagination and come up with something interesting. Is your character afraid of peacocks? Maybe they always fall asleep during movies.
• Possessing an awesome object or weapon also adds awesome to your character.
• Interesting characters deserve interesting names. We'll have a lesson on naming characters alter in the year.
• What's your character's favorite animal? Food? Sport? Activity? Choose something unusual, interesting, and awesome. Sure, you could go with dog, pizza, soccer, and playing video games, but how about sea scorpions, tom kha gai, ski jumping, and kite surfing? Which character would you rather spend a whole story with?
• Give your character a unique response to situations. What does your character do under stress? When angry? When sad? Don't be afraid to make it something totally unique.
• When building a character, keep in mind that most people have a gap between the way they perceive themselves and the way that others see them. This discrepancy between internal self and external behavior can be the source of all sorts of awesome.

Now that you've built an awesome character, make their awesomeness important to your plot! Use their traits, skills, knowledge, and interests to move the story.

Next week's lesson: Irony