Inkabout L. Darby Gibbs

Science Fiction & Fantasy author

Code Hero

The Little Handbook of Narrative Frameworks is published!

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Narrative Frameworks

My newest book The Little Handbook of Narrative Frameworks for writing novels and stories is now available for download at Smashwords and will soon be available at B&N, Sony, Apple, and Amazon, along with a number of other distribution sites. 

The organization of a story is dependent upon its structure.  That is, of course, obvious, yet it can be overlooked so easily in the process of writing or reading.  But the conflict formation or the character development is essential to the story.  This handbook is about that unpinning, the structure that carries a story.

In addition to the examination of classic plot and character development, I have included worksheets after each framework for use in designing a story as well as for examining a story for its organization.  My intention was to create a resource book for reviewing and examining the structure of a narrative for design and understanding.  My hope is that writers and readers will find it a practical addition to their resource libraries.

Narrative Mode ~ #17 Byronic Hero

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Dark hero

The Byronic hero is different than other heroes.  In some ways he is similar to Hemingway’s code hero in that he does not fit in society.  However, Hemingway’s hero seeks acceptance and is humble in his difference, while Lord Byron’s hero is superior and deliberate in his isolation.  He is better than others because of his superior intellect and sensitivity.  His passion overrides his actions and supplies support to his intense attachment to whatever drives him: war, a woman, knowledge, isolation. 

In return for his active rejection of social mores, he is also rejected by society even though he is still viewed as great, but great with tremendous flaws that others see, but he does not or does not view as actual flaws.  He is misunderstood or perhaps even maligned in his youth and must live with the stamp of darkness or deliberately perpetuate it as a kind of medal of valor against what he views as inferior knowledge created by the society he rejects.
This character acts as a foil against a common heroic plot.  There are heroic actions he simply cannot do, and this influence on plot imposes distinct directions that the designated Byronic hero must take.

Example:

  • Common hero sees female in distress, battles with those attempting to harm her, saves her and returns her to her waiting family’s arms.  She falls in love with him, and they live happily ever after (once they have dealt with all the interference common to heroic love).
  • Byronic hero sees female in distress, battles with those attempting to harm her, saves her and (wait, here is the catch) returns her to her waiting family’s arms requesting first proper reward paid before they may have her back.  He will withhold her until he receives appropriate payment and will even reject payment if he determines he undervalued the prize.  She is strangely attracted and repulsed by him, perhaps even insulted by his lack of interest in her.  He may even desire her, but payment comes first.

Want to write a dark story, write with a Byronic hero in the mix.  He does not even have to be the main character.  But your readers will get attached to him, hoping all the time that he will change.  And perhaps, you will change him in the end, slightly anyway.

Seen any good Byronic heroes?  Wuthering Heights has Heathcliff.  Jane Eyre‘s Rochester is a gentler version that changes.  Written any?

 The Little Handbook of Narrative Frameworks available on Smashwords and Amazon.

Narrative mode: #6 Hemingway’s Code Hero

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Some authors create their own frameworks and follow them in several novels.  Hemingway was one such author.  His work has been analyzed for the Code Hero which is quite different from the hero of the Heroic Journey mode.  

  • Hemingway’s Code Hero courts death as a matter of honor. In fact, the hero must constantly challenge himself with facing battles which will likely end in his death.  Winning though good, is merely a delay from facing the ultimate final battle.  
  • Courage, honor, individualism and endurance are key features of this framework.  The hero must follow the rules, maintain his ethical standing in the community yet accept these challenges knowing and even creating opportunity for death.  
  • Classic dangerous animals are the common form of danger faced, so the death is not without injury and physical scarring.  Still the hero goes on.  
  • Oddly, Hemingway’s Code Hero is often afraid of the darkness, a condition too close to the emptiness of death which he fears while pursuing it.

How might this show itself in a story?  The hero must be strong, viewed as invincible by his community, yet he must also be humble, often poor and limited by his station in life.  Winning against life’s challenges is not like running a race or struggling with illness.  The win is not one that is recognized by many, and may only be acknowledge by a single person.  The hero’s gain comes from within.  So it would not be unusual to find the character as a loner who must be in the wilderness battling to travel through snow storms or a solitary man traversing a jungle to find the remains of a lost airplane.

If you have read Old Man and the Sea, then you have see the Code Hero in action.  Santiago daily goes out alone on the ocean to seek prize fish.  It is dangerous, stressful, and physically debilitating, but he does not turn away nor wish for any other life.  In battle, he fights, both loving his opponent and plotting its death while accepting his own if that is how it must end.  When he does return to land, the battle over, he returns to his solitary, weary life, and the reader knows that tomorrow he will head out again, perhaps to meet his ultimate fate, death.

 The Little Handbook of Narrative Frameworks available on Smashwords and Amazon.