Cross Stars: Using Astrology to Build Character Conflict
AUTHOR: Jody Wallace

Conflict, for a peacemaker like myself, is one of the more difficult parts of novel-writing to master because, in order for the novel to be ?good?, the conflict must be realistic (at least within the scope of the sf/f setting), sustainable and human. Generally, in a romance novel the outer, or plot, conflicts are resolved just prior to the inner, or romantic, conflicts, although frequently the two are entwined throughout the novel.

From what I have observed in my years of reading SFRs, there?s a hard way to do this and a harder way to do this. The merely hard way to keep your hero and heroine at loggerheads for the majority of your novel, thus preventing the resolution of the romantic conflict until the end of the book, is to assemble them to BE at loggerheads. Recently my RWA chapter hosted a session on using Myers-Briggs personality types to construct protagonists with built-in personality conflicts, like ESTJ man versus INFP female. So I got the idea that, especially for all of us wacky authors of speculative fiction, it could be equally as interesting to use astrology, instead of the Myers-Briggs, as the basis for your character creation.

Whether or not you think astrology is total bunk, you can still use it as a writing tool to have a little fun with your protagonists and their inner natures. There are countless published astrological volumes and websites that can give you a basic understanding of the twelve sun signs and their behavioral tendencies in various situations. I?m not going to attempt a summary of that because then the newsletter would be much longer this month than you wanted to read. Instead, here is a quick run-down of which sun signs classic astrology claims are opposites for the purposes of generating disparate personality types.

The twelve signs are broken up into various categories, and the two that are the easiest to use when setting up clashing characters are element and mode. The four elements, as you probably know, are fire, air, earth and water, and the three modes are cardinal, fixed and mutable.

Fire: Aries, Leo & Sagittarius
Air: Libra, Aquarius & Gemini
Earth: Capricorn, Taurus & Virgo
Water: Cancer, Scorpio & Pisces

In each element, there is a sign in each mode:

Cardinal (leaders): Aries, Libra, Capricorn & Cancer
Fixed (organizers): Leo, Aquarius, Taurus & Scorpio
Mutable (communicators): Sagittarius, Gemini, Virgo & Pisces

When it discusses pairings, classic astrology recommends that individuals seek among their own or compatible elements for mates. But if you want to create two people with polar opposition so it will be easier to sustain their lack of romantic resolution, it?s simplest to choose folks in incompatible elements (fire and air versus water and earth), because they have very different ways of looking at life and love, or with incompatible modes (two characters in the same category), because they will vie for the identical leadership position. Writers of SFRs and other romances seem to find it vastly entertaining to spin the tales of these volatile relationships because in the majority of romances, these are the types of characters you find ? two people for whom loving one another does not come easily.

There are also several books out there, such as Linda Goodman?s highly detailed Love Signs, which outlines profiles of relationships between males and females of each sign. As a writer, when you read these descriptions, it is quite possible your imagination will take flight. Try to distance yourself from whether or not you ?know? people of that sign or how ?wrong? the book is ? just imagine two characters who do act that way, two brand new people, and then let them tell you the story of their lives together.

In The Only Astrology Book You?ll Ever Need, the Aries male, the classic alpha, and the Cancer female, the classic ?old fashioned gal?, will find initial sexual attraction that ?fades in the face of many temperamental differences? (55). Aries is quick to act, aggressive and possesses a sharp tongue while Cancer is cautious, hypersensitive and home & hearth loving. The author of this book claims that this couple is not a match made in heaven, but that doesn?t mean it?s not a match made in an SFR novel!

Another potential combo from this volume would be the Taurus male (your stubborn cowboy type) and the Leo female (your center-of-attention glamour puss type). The writer emphasizes that neither sign gets what it needs from the other and that the two have a ?basic conflict between Taurus?s desire for a well-ordered schedule and Leo?s need for a larger-than-life existence? (59). Yes, problems like these are more challenging to have your protagonists work through than, say, a Virgo-Capricorn pairing where ?Virgo?s neatly ordered mind meshes well with Capricorn?s self-discipline and capacity for hard work,? ensuring that ?there?s no reason this duo shouldn?t click? (84).

One thing that both astrology and the Myers-Briggs do is predict how certain character types tend to respond to certain kinds of situations and people. It can be frustrating when an author sets up a hero or heroine to be a specific way and then has that character acting inconsistently just to fulfill the demands of the plot. If you base your protagonists, even your secondary characters, on these astrological or Myers-Briggs stereotypes, it is easier to ensure that their natures are consistent ? especially when their natures are very different from the writer?s own.

And that harder way to sustain your conflict throughout the course of the book I mentioned at the beginning of this essay? Take two characters who are compatible, mature, attracted to one another and, horror of romance novel horrors -- willing to communicate -- and try to keep them apart for 350-odd pages. Will they allow you to meddle with their lives in that fashion? Or will they blast through all the obstacles you place between them while holding hands and sticking their tongues out at you in a nasty fashion? I?m not sure, but chances are your book is going to be heavily plot-based, with repeated outside circumstances coming in between your protagonists. While this is not unusual for a romance novel, there is also generally an emotional gap that remains until the end of the book ? character conflict, if you will ? which would not be as likely to persist between two evolved and like-minded characters.

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Websites for further information:

www.astrology-online.com/zodiac.htm: bills itself as the ?largest astrology site on the internet?

astrology.about.com/science/astrology: has mega-links to other sites as well as plenty o info

www.astrology.com: a very polished site that is part of the ivillage.com network

www.astrologyguide.com: claims detailed compatibility profiles

www.astrologyindex.com: yet another astrology site

www.ophira.com/astrology/starwars.html just for fun, an SFR-related astrology site

Books for further information (all available via Amazon et al):

Goodman, Linda. Linda Goodman?s Love Signs.

Goodman, Linda. Linda Goodman?s Sun Signs.

Woolfolk, Joanna Martine. The Only Astrology Book You?ll Ever Need.

Hewitt, William W. Astrology for Beginners.

[Note: These books are less hokey than, say, ?How to Seduce Any Man in the Zodiac?]