My guest post at Speculative Fiction: Shiny Writing Tips from Mal Reynolds and Firefly

http://www.speculativefaith.com/2011/05/27/guest-post-shiny-writing-tips-from-mal-reynolds-and-firefly/

Guest Post – Shiny Writing Tips From Mal Reynolds and Firefly
Friday, May 27th, 2011 by Johne
Cook<http://www.speculativefaith.com/author/johnecook/>

<http://www.speculativefaith.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Johne-Cook.jpg>

I love space opera and sci-fi, which means I love Joss Whedon’s short-lived
space western series *Firefly*, and I especially love Malcolm Reynolds. The
Mal Reynolds character is what you get if you made a TV series about the
adventures of a renegade Han Solo before his character’s redemption (and
subsequent gentrification) at the end of the original Star Wars movie. In
the subsequent Special Edition of the film, George Lucas famously retconned
the iconic scene introducing Han Solo so he didn’t fire first, thus making
him safer but less interesting. Joss fixed that with Mal, who was forever
firing first (and last, and…).

As a smuggler / tramp freighter captain, Mal thought of himself as a kind of
Confederate Robin Hood against the Union-like Alliance. Of the captain,
savant River Tam sagely observed “Mal. Means ‘bad.’ In the Latin.” Mal
didn’t even know he needs redemption, or if he did, he ran from that
awareness. He might be an uncomfortable character for many Christian
authors, and yet he is precisely the kind of character that readers identify
with, and thus valuable to try to write. During the course of *Firefly*, Mal
remained largely unrepentant, and thus fascinating. If you can, lead up to
your character’s redemption through the course of the work and make that a
climax element late in the story. Pull that out too soon and you remove much
of the moral tension.

And another thing — mistreat your characters. Often, many Christian writers
are afraid to be dark, or they rescue their characters too quickly. It’s an
old but venerable expression: kill your darlings. The more conflicted and
mistreated our protagonists are, the more compelling they are. Conflict
drives the engine of Story, and clever dialogue is always better than
exposition. Therefore, here are some tips (and accompanying examples from
various *Firefly* episodes) on how we can improve our writing by shaking it
up a little, space western-style:

   • *Get Religion* – Don’t be afraid to embrace or be critical of religion.
      Either tactic creates lots of opportunity for conflict and
discussion. Faith
      is more interesting when it is demonstrated than when it is
preached. I love
      stories that display the cause-and-effect of one righteous man
in the midst
      of a gang of ruffians.
         Mal: Well, what about you, Shepherd (*a kind of cleric*)? How come
         you’re flying about with us brigands? I mean, shouldn’t you
be off bringing
         religiosity to the fuzzy-wuzzies or some such?
      Book: Oh, I got heathens aplenty right here.
      Mal: If I’m your mission, Shepherd, best give it up. You’re welcome on
         my boat. God ain’t.

      • *Cuss ingeniously* – Don’t be afraid of allowing your characters to
      swear (as long as it’s in a language the majority of your readers don’t
      understand). Carole McDonnell <http://carolemcdonnell.blogspot.com/>,
      author of the Christian speculative multicultural novel, *Wind
      Follower*<http://www.amazon.com/Wind-Follower-Carole-McDonnell/dp/0809557797/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1306467364&sr=8-1>,
      has noted that whether it is culturally correct or not, it is
not uncommon
      for people of all religions and temperaments to reach a point where they
      need to vent. How you handle this can resonate with and entertain your
      readers.
      Mal: Confronted by a bar full of Alliance sympathizers. “Oh, zhe zhen
         shi ge kuaile de jinzhan [this is a happy development]…”
      Mal: *Da-shiong bao-jah-shr duh la doo-tze* … [the explosive diarrhea
         of an elephant]

      • *Hit something* – In many Christian novels, violence is considered
      bad, but in Speculative Fiction, violence has a purpose and a
place. Don’t
      be afraid of a little violence, as long as it serves the character(s), is
      comic, or happens off-screen. (Or, best yet, all three.) You can
do a great
      deal by suggesting violence without graphically depicting it.
While watching
      *The Dark Knight*, itself a very dark film, I noted just how little
      actual violence was shown on-screen. A great deal was suggested but not
      actually shown. Use that in your fiction, and then show the
cause-and-effect
      of resorting to violence and the consequences of doing so.
      *In the ship’s infirmary after fighting in a bar on the anniversary of
         the end of war that the Independents lost.*
      Simon: Need a weave on that?
      Mal: It’s nothing.
      Simon: I expect there’s someone’s face feels differently.
      Mal: You know they tell ya, never hit a man with a closed fist. But it
         is, on occasion, hilarious.

      • *Explore the difference between laws and morals* – Feel free to
      allow your characters to break “the law of the land” but always
keep an eye
      on your character’s personal moral code. This is not to say that the
      character’s personal code is like that of the Christian author,
but broken
      moral codes (if the character breaks his own code) is a great opportunity
      for self-reflection. And when a character breaks the code of the
land, there
      is the conflict of the good man against the evil in the world, which is a
      venerable Christian theme.
      Sheriff Bourne: You were truthful back in town. A man can get a job,
         he might not look too close at what that job is. But a man
learns all the
         details of a situation like ours, well, then he has a choice.
      Mal: I don’t believe he does.
      *Seeking to return prepayment money for the train job to the henchmen
         of a vicious mob boss.*
      Mal: Now this is all the money Niska gave us in advance. You take it
         back to him, tell him the job didn’t work out. We’re not
thieves. (Beat)
         Well we are thieves. Point is, we’re not taking what’s his.
Now, we’ll stay
         out of his way best we can from here on in. You explain
that’s best for
         everyone, okay?
      Crow, Niska’s 1st henchman: Keep the money! Use it to by a funeral! It
         doesn’t matter where you go or how far you fly! I will hunt
you down and the
         last thing you see will be my blade!
      Mal: Darn. [*kicks Crow into the intake engine*]
      *Turns to 2nd henchman.*
      Mal: Now this is all the money Niska gave us in advance…
      Niska’s 2nd henchman: Oh yeah, I’m good! Best thing for everyone! I’m
         right there with you!

Here are some other thoughts from Mal and Firefly.

   • There’s a difference between banter and bickering. The former is
      hilarious, the latter is tedious. *Firefly* did banter very well. *Sky
      Captain And The World Of Tomorrow* resorted to bickering between the
      main characters. There’s a reason why *Firefly* is so quotable and *Sky
      Captain*, sadly, isn’t.
      • Don’t be afraid to be dark, and be willing to relieve that darkness
      with sporadic comic moments.
      • Always leave room for mystery or long-running unresolved plot
      points. (I’m thinking here of the example of Inara’s hinted
immortality “I
      don’t want to die at all!”)
      • Work from an outline if you can (Joss is a self-described ‘outline
      nazi,’) but don’t be afraid to fly by the seat of your pants to
break out of
      a rut or a slump.
      • Don’t skimp on fleshing out a wide variety of colorful, believable
      villains.
      • Don’t be afraid to listen to the inane ramblings of your cast or
      crew. And don’t be afraid to ignore them.

Feel free to add your own *Firefly*-for-writers tips in the comments, and
thanks for reading!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
<http://www.speculativefaith.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/RGR_newlogo.jpg>

Johne Cook is a technical writer by day and creative writer / editor at
night. His interests include prog rock, film noir, space opera, and
racquetball. Johne is older than he looks but acts younger than he is.

His short fiction has appeared at *Deep Magic*, *The Sword Review*, *Wayfarer’s
Journal*, and *Digital Dragon* magazine.

In 2006, with L. S. King and Paul Christian Glenn, Johne founded *Ray Gun
Revival <http://www.raygunrevival.com/>* magazine, devoted to space opera
and golden age sci-fi. They refer to themselves collectively as the
Overlords, and are often vaporizing someone’s puny planet for various
arbitrary infractions.


Johne Cook
| http://raygunrevival.com | http://authorculture.blogspot.com |*
*
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