SMC: Triple Duty Writing

This brings us to the end of the Storymakers Conference notes. I hope you’ve found something helpful from reading these. Polish up those manuscripts, peeps, cuz I wanna read about how you landed agents or sold a bajillion copies on Amazon in the near future.

I’ve mentioned Clint Johnson before, who any of you can hire to critique your stuff via his site. He really knows his stuff and his forum was no exception to helpful tips. I give you last NOTES of the conference:

What is actually happening or going on in a story? There are three actions that generate what happens in a story.

1. Advance Plot
2. Setting Scene
3. Revealing Character

Learn how to do all three of those motions simultaneously on the same page, in the same paragraph. Plot is not just a chronological unveiling of the events in your story. You can change the chronology to change the revealing of your story.

Setting limits within the scene dictates what can happen there. When you pick a place, remember that different places have different characters, your establishment of setting is going to affect those.

Revealed character is what makes your story matter. You can have set scene and have a plot that is completely advanced, and your story may still not matter. Characterization is the meaning..

Sometimes writers feel like they need to give us a block of backstory or a block of internalization. But anytime you have a block of anything, it’s a speed bump. The bigger the block, the bigger the bump, the more inertia you’re going to take away from your reader. Doing any one narrative action is bad.

Even if you know something that invests you, you’re using your previous knowledge to wade through the block. If you’re only using two of the three actions (from above), it’ll feel disembodied, or it’ll feel like nothing is happening or readers just won’t care. (And because I thought this next bit was especially good, I’m putting it in a block quote.)

Your story is not what happens. Your story is how your point of view character reacts to what happens.

Action only reveals so much meaning. Reaction is where the greatest amount of meaning comes from—especially in prose. Different mediums have different strengths, and what written prose does better than any other medium is it gives you access to the mind. We can slip into the mind any time we want. And we can’t escape the mind.

Your use of point of view is the key to being able to make everything you ever write matter.

It’s personalities that move an age, not politics – Oscar Wilde

If you begin with an individual you will find you have created a type (I think what he means by this is create an individual and let that individual reveal themselves to you and use what you have learned about the individual to create legitimate reactions within your writing). Begin with a type and you will find you have created nothing. (If you start with a characterization and don’t delve into what makes that character who he/she is, you will have a cliché and a flat character.)

The more we create an authentic individual we’ll find we’ve created a type. (And to go further into this, types in this sense are the Jack Bauers, Darth Vaders, Sarah Conners, i.e. the memorable characters).

In setting, you only record something important to the POV. Use POV to help it mean something. Two people can witness the exact same thing and have a completely different understanding of it. What you choose to describe tells you about the character.

WRITING EXERCISES

At this point he had us do some exercises. He had us look at the room we were in and pick out a detail about it to describe in prose. So, if you want to play along, look at the area where you’re seated and pick out a detail or two to describe that area to readers. Why did you choose the details that you chose?

Now imagine an old woman were to come into your area. What would she notice that would reveal to us something about her? Modern, uncomfortable furniture. Loud, obnoxious music? Etc? What about the main character of your novel? What would they immediately notice about your space? Use their reactions to what they see to tell your readers something about them without actually “telling” them.

After a little discussion on our choices, we moved to another writing exercise. He split us into groups and gave us a specific topic to write about. For our group the set up was this: a reporter at the beach discovers a dead body. We had to describe the scene pulling out details that would tell us our character was a reporter and also show our reporter’s reaction to finding the dead body.

Once we had written and discussed this, he had us switch the POV to a homeless man finding the body on the beach and his reaction. Then to compare and contrast the differences between the POVs encountering the same exact beach and the same exact situation. If you do this exercise, you’ll be surprised with how the story reads (or at least should) very differently for two different characters walking into the exact same scene.

CONTACT INFO

If you liked the sample of what you read here, you should really check out Clint’s site, especially for those of you thinking of self-publishing in the near future. I worked with him on the first 2 pages of my manuscript and found his insights to be extremely helpful and was astounded at how much he was able to read into the story with only 2 pages.

What do you think of Clint’s advice? Are you going to try the writing exercises? Have you considered approaching your writing in the way of your character’s reactions?

SMC: Voice

This was a panel given by agent Michelle Witte, who has also authored a couple of books. One is The Craptastic Guide to Pseudo-Swearing, something you children’s, MG, and even some YA writers may find valuable. The other is The Faker’s Guide to the Classics, a snarky version of cliff notes for those who want to up on the classics, but don’t have the time to read them. Having read some of the Craptastic Guide, Witte’s snark is something you’ll find extremely enjoyable. They’re both available to Kindle sample, so give ’em a try.

Okay, NOTES:

She said there’s three parts to writing that form the “story” triangle of sorts:

1. Voice
2. Writing
3. Plot

Two areas of the “triangle” can be bigger than the other. But if one is big while the other two remain weak it may be why your story falls flat.

CHARACTER

Character is the central part of voice. It’s the character who brings voice out onto the page.

“The writer’s voice in a novel generally belongs to a character.” –Self-Editing for Fiction Writers

There are two kinds of voice: the writer’s voice and the voice of an individual book. The main character defines the voice of the book.

Take Mary Higgins Clark, for example. Her novels all sound the same. Your writing is what works for you. Each book should have its own unique voice.

SMC: Writing Action Scenes

How are your action scenes? Too long? Not descriptive enough? Let this forum presented by AUTHOR give you the tips to take your action from flab to fab. Even if action is your strong suit, I think there’s great tips for all.

And now, the NOTES:

Tip #1 Do what you write
Figure out the logistics of your scene. Act it out as much as possible and see if there’s anything else you notice that might give texture to the scene for your readers. Or, if it’s not something you know a lot about, sit down with someone who does.

Tip #2 Use your verbs.
When it comes to action scenes, use very strong words, not passive. Ask yourself, does this verb foreshadow? Often great writers will take language that is in the climax and put it in Chapter One. That way when readers reach the climax on a subconscious level it all makes sense.

Tip #3 Avoid passive voice at all costs
Action needs to be very present and very accountable. Passive voice is abdicating responsibility. It shows a character being acted upon rather than acting, and action 100% needs your characters acting (even if they’re getting smashed to bits).

Tip #4 Use dialogue strategically.
In real life you don’t do much talking when you’re fighting, so leave out unnatural long speeches or dialogue that just wouldn’t work in an action scene. However, that doesn’t mean ex out all dialogue. When dialogue breaks up the action it’s a good thing. Dialogue can frame the action you’ve written. (Remember Empire Strikes Back? Of course you do! Anyway, think of Luke and Vader fighting. A lot of that scene they aren’t talking, but as Luke is being defeated Vader starts to insert lines that give us insight into Luke possibly losing his internal conflict as well.)

Remember, part of the battle is the psychological. The first one to lose their temper is often the loser. But don’t use fight scenes to put in exposition (aka backstory or infodumping). A fight scene should be all in the present and all intense.

Tip #5 Make sure every sentence moves the action forward.
This is not the place to dwell, wallow, or describe a sunset. Every sentence takes us closer to the climax of this action. Every sentence is a continuation of action. Only use details you’ve already introduced, don’t introduce new details because it will slow the scene down.

But remember, you don’t have to give the wikipedia explanation of everything. Sometimes writers feel like they have to prove they’re knowledgeable of something when all it usually ends up doing is showing that they’re trying to prove they are knowledgeable. Keep it simple and keep it moving.

Tip #6 Read Other Writers
One of the best ways to learn how to write great action is to read other author’s action scenes. Ask yourself, how do they “grab” me? Bad examples can teach you a lot as well. If the writing drags, can you see why? Emulate those you admire and workshop your writing (I think she means, have it beta read) to find strengths/weaknesses.

Tip #7 Give it Tension (Don’t make it easy)
Give your enemy a brain. Remember: if the action scene wasn’t planned by your protagonist, it was planned by the opposition.

The opposition must be formidable in some way. They must want something from the hero. What gives them an edge is they are willing to do things your hero can’t or won’t do.

The hero cares more and hence has more to lose. Everything your hero has on the field they want to keep. The opposition is perfectly willing to sacrifice whatever he/she needs in order to defeat the hero.

Tip #8 Foreshadow the Protagonist’s success or failure

(At this point we were running short on time, so she went way faster. I’ll try and summarize what I believe she meant by her headings.)

Use language and/or symbolism to indicate whether or not your protagonist will succeed. You can also use this to misdirect readers into thinking one thing will happen and show them it’s quite the opposite.

Tip #9 Keep it Tight (In Scene) But Let It Breathe
Set up the scene for action and then let the scene play. Understand the time/space where they figure out things. (She mentioned one author whose name I can’t remember, sorry, who had people read her action scenes while people behind her acted them out. She said it shouldn’t take longer to read the scene than it does for them to act it out. Daunting eh?)

Tip #10 Have Stakes (What does the winner get?)

Make sure whatever the winner gets that it’s really good and it’s really devastating to the opposition, be it the hero or the villain.

Tip #11 Keep Track of Time (keep it real time)
(Ah, here’s where she actually mentioned it. But it never hurts to read this twice). An action scene should not take longer to read than to physically do.

Tip #12 Keep it Primal (instinct not intellectual)

(Someone mentioned the fight scenes in RDJ’s Sherlock Holmes as the contrary example to this. But we fully believe that Sherlock would be doing the play-by-play in his mind of a fight, so it works for him. It likely wouldn’t work for most of our characters).

Let your characters react to action scenes based on instinct. Let them mess things up, misjudge things, get more angry when they realize they’re losing, etc.

*****

I really found this forum helpful and recently got feedback from a friend on a certain scene that wasn’t utilizing these tips. It’s been great timing for me to post it. 😉 I challenge you to look at your action scenes and see if there isn’t anything you can do to pep them up.

Did you find anything helpful? Do you feel more confident in writing action scenes? What do you do to research action scenes? Any of this advice you’re already utilizing?

SMC: Powerful First Pages

This breakout session was taught by Josi Kilpack, author of the Culinary Mysteries series and several other books. Check out her author website here.

And now, THE NOTES.

If we want other people to read our books we must fulfill their expectations. We’ve created a sort of reader contract with them. The first chapter is your first chance to fulfill or fail those expectations.

OPENING HOOK vs BOOK HOOK

The book hook is what your book is about. The opening hook is getting right into the story and making sure right away that it is interesting to your reader. So while your whole book must have an interesting premise and blurb to entice readers to read the book, the first chapter must have it’s own mini-hook that drives them to proceed anxiously to chapter two.

A side note: A lot of people will point to other authors who break the rules as their excuse for breaking the rules in their own novels. But here’s the thing: In order to break rules you must 100% absolutely understand why that rule is in place and know exactly why you’re bending it. Otherwise it’ll likely turn into a gimmick—and you’ll push potential readers away.

HOOK vs GIMMICK

Your goal is to gain the reader’s interest. You will lose most readers after the first chapter if it’s not good. However, sometimes things we think must be interesting aren’t if we allow them to become a gimmick and not a hook.

For example, let’s say there’s great action in the first chapter, but it didn’t match the book. The rest of the book was more of a careful, slow build to a different kind of story—more like a Steel Magnolias tone vs. Die Hard. It didn’t fit, it didn’t give you a good idea of what this story is about. It’s become a gimmick if you’re trying to manipulate readers into reading the book and setting up a false hope of what the story will be about. Not every book must be an action story, nor should it, but don’t set up false expectations of what kind of story your reader will be getting.

BEFORE YOU START

1) Mood/Tone – What do you want your reader to feel when they read this chapter? Sympathetic? Anxious? What feeling do you want your readers to take away from this first chapter?
2) Goal – What’s the goal of this chapter? What’s the character’s goal? What’s the plot’s goal? We need to know the starting point, and why it’s important we chose it. Do it in the present. We’re often tempted to do backstory and a lot of setting, but we must start our story now, where the story begins.

Tips for Starting Active:

• Have dialogue
• Have movement
• Have momentum
• Create tension
• Show interaction
• Have action (though this doesn’t necessarily mean guns blazing, just that something is happening)
• Show conflict
• Enter at the middle of the scene

SMC: Character Arcs

This fun panel was brought to us by Jordan McCollum who also made access to her Prezi (like Powerpoint but cooler) via her website. So if my notes don’t make any sense, you can always check out hers. Plus she’s got links and sources. Nothing but the best for all of you peeps.

CHARACTER ARCS

Your character needs to have made some change by the end of your story. This can be many different types of change. Examples:

• Mystery to truth
• Fear to courage
• Ambition to destruction
• Doubt to decision

The internal journey is a major part of the elixir—the process of fixing what’s wrong in his/her life. Sometimes this can be more compelling than the external prize he/she can gain.

What if you don’t know your characters well enough yet? Are you trying to find a good internal conflict, or you still can’t figure out how the external events of the plot are going to affect them internally?

Focus on what motivates your character. Is it her:

• Profession
• Hobbies
• Journey & changes in the story

What compels her to go on this journey with you? What are her values? What does she prize above all else?

PERSEVERER

Let’s pretend our MC is going on the show “Perserverer” (think Survivor, but since that’s copyrighted, we’re using this title instead). Why would our MC be going on the show? Money is the obvious reason, but it’s got to be more than that to be a compelling story.

The external events of the story directly influence the character’s emotional journey. A well-executed internal character journey is intertwined with the external plot. The events of the plot show the characters’ starting and ending points. But the external plot’s events also force the change and show the stages of the journey throughout.

When your writing the conflict, you’ve got to take it way back. The starting point 1) must be shown and 2) it must be bad. You must have it on screen. You can’t have people tell the reader about it nor can you just tell the reader about it.

Michael Hauge says there are plenty of ways to create the starting point. It can be:

• Longing
• Wound (something that’s really affected them)
• Belief (start wrong, lead them to assume a mask)
• Mask (not who they truly are)
• Essence

An example of this for character arcs can be Shrek. He believes that because he is an ogre everyone will run away from and fear him and so he wears that mask making it a self-fulfilling prophecy.

But when you’re writing these arcs, don’t forget character sympathy! If they just let life keep kicking them, it’s hard to sympathize with them. Make sure they have struggles AND strengths.

The emotional starting point must be BAD, so bad that the character must fix it. They’ve probably already learned how to cope with it, but when the story begins you must weave something in so that when they face it this time they have to do something more to overcome it. And the more ingrained this is the harder it is to change.

Go back to Shrek. He’s so convinced about his mask of being “the ogre” he’ll even travel to Lord Farquaad’s kingdom to have him order people away when secretly what he wants is acceptance. He’ll do everything he can to keep people away, to hide his vulnerability.

“Save the Cat” is a great book on story telling. Some pieces of advice from this book is to make sure you take a step back. We must show the audience everything, and sometimes you have to make it worse for your character.

Character-driven fiction is about internal change. -Alicia Rasley

THE SAGGING MIDDLE

Sometimes in between the starting point (or inciting incident) and the climax, our stories drag in the middle. Our character may retreat into the familiar and failure.

• link the external events and internal arc in stimulus/response units (I think you could also call it action/reaction).
• character should try to maintain their world view most of the story—doesn’t want to change.
• character is presented with real choices, stacked choices
• they may make a wrong choice, and slowly they’ll learn their old world view isn’t working.
• choices hurt him until he has no other choice or realizes he needs to make better choices.

TWO STEPS FORWARD, ONE STEP BACK

Make every response somehow different, and then assemble them in order of emotional risk. -Alicia Rasley

THE CLIMAX

In the ultimate moment of character change, show that the character has learned his lesson and can defeat the bad guy.

Set up the bad guy (internal, external, weather, whatever) the right way. Align the bad guy with the mask. Going back to Shrek: I’m a big scary ogre, the bad guy believes the same.

Show how the MC is (or has been) like the bad guy. Make the MC choose and affirm the choice.

TIMING

We want the internal and external climax to come as close together as possible. Readers will only believe the internal change if they see it on an external level. -Alicia Rasley

So how do you have a fulfilling ending, even if your character doesn’t achieve his/her external goal? (Hint: it’s the title of this notes post…)

CHARACTER ARCS IN RELATIONSHIP STORIES (NOT JUST ROMANCE, BUT OFTEN)

Each charcter in the main relationship needs their own arc, needs their own wound, and/or their own mask. The love interest must be able to see past the mask eventually to the character’s true essence. The MC will have problems with their love interest when they retreat behind their mask. The MC’s wound should somehow match the strength, personality, etc. something about the love interest/buddy. This trait helps heal the character’s wound. (Think Donkey and Shrek. Donkey is good at talking and relating to people. He helps Shrek gather the courage to share his true feelings with Fiona, something he wouldn’t have done before.)

ARE THERE CHARACTERS THAT DON’T ARC?

Yes. They are often seen in series. They already have larger than life qualities and often go on larger-than-life adventures. (James Bond, Indiana Jones) This isn’t as common as it used to be with readers. Most these days like being with a character that arcs. You know, like Harry Potter.

Or this guy:

 

Character arcs in fiction show the power of transformative experiences. Watching that tranformation, rooting for it, and growing the character are the major reasons we read fiction.

What do you think? Do you plan character arcs into your stories? What tips do you have for those trying to figure out their character arcs? Do you miss David Tennant? Anything else you would add?