Plot Considerations, part 3

[resonant]

This weekend I slurped up three more books from the Writer's Digest Elements of Fiction Writing series. I will continue to digest the digests, for those of you who share my plot perplexity.



First let me tell you that William Noble's Conflict, Action, and Suspense is worthless -- a pity, since some actual useful advice on conflict, action, and suspense would have been very helpful. His approach is to fling out a random subject, and then say something like this: Pacing is very important, and many beginners approach it wrong. Here are four or five examples of ways it can go wrong. So pay attention to your pacing. Now, on to the subject of suspense ... Pay attention to it. OK, thanks, Bill, that's so very helpful.

Jack Bickham's Scene and Structure is very technical, and I'm still digesting it to see how useful it is. He divides every story into scene (i.e. action) and sequel (i.e. reaction), and then he subdivides scene into goal, conflict, and disaster, and sequel into emotion, though, decision, and action.

So far, I've found it utterly stultifying and paralyzing to think of a story in those terms while I'm writing it, but I've had some success in using them to figure out what's wrong with a story that's already written, and I suspect that they might be helpful in the plotting stage.

The most useful insight I got out of Bickham was on the subject of pacing. Weirdly enough, I had my eureka moment while reading a section on how to slow down the pace, which is odd, since a too-fast pace is not a problem I ever have.

Bickham says that scene/action reads as fast, sequel/reaction as slow. So to slow a story down, you (1) extend the sequel portion; (2) make your actions less active by having them end in near-disaster rather than full-on disaster; or (3) move some of your action into the reaction section by having your character not discover that she's experienced a disaster until she's halfway through the sequel. ("Wait a minute, if X, Y, and Z, then I can't do Q after all! I'm screwed!")

Now, extending the sequel/reaction portion -- spending more time in the character's head than out in the real world where things can happen -- is something that I typically do when I don't really know my character very well. (Maybe this is why writing action gets easier for me the longer I spend in a particular fandom: I no longer need five pages of Fraser musing to figure out what Fraser would think.)

But the other two -- pulling back from full disaster, or writing it so that disaster isn't immediately apparent -- those, once again, are typical of a conflict-avoidant personality. I try to weasel out of all confrontations, even fictional ones!

Orson Scott Card's Character and Viewpoint was very entertaining to read, but didn't really address any of my particular weak points (or, at least, any that I'm aware of). A lot of his warnings are ones that fandom excels at teaching: POV shifts, Mary Sue-ism, epithets, etc.

I did want to share one tip, though, for those like me who have continuity problems in long stories or series: Card recommends keeping a separate file open to record all the decisions you make about a character -- she's an only child, she hates coffee, she was born in April, etc. (It will tell you something about our respective characters that I call this a stylebook and Card calls it a Bible.)

To maintain it, he recommends starting each day by going through the previous day's writing and using it to update your stylebook, which I think is a great idea.

I'm sure all of you understand that in no way am I reading plot books to avoid actually writing anything. I would never do that.

Comments

[eliade.livejournal.com]

But the other two -- pulling back from full disaster, or writing it so that disaster isn't immediately apparent -- those, once again, are typical of a conflict-avoidant personality. I try to weasel out of all confrontations, even fictional ones!

Oh my god, me too! I always admire when someone really puts characters through the conflict wringer and wish that I could do the same. It's so hard for me.

I love the style book idea. Thanks! :)

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, your stories never feel like they're pulling back from the necessary conflict. But that may be because you're choosing levels of conflict that you can handle -- I know I do.

[mzcalypso.livejournal.com]

If a story isn't going well, I can see the use in dissecting it in hopes of making a repair. But for me, mechanizing it too much dehumanizes it and turns it into 'why bother.'

I had a list of character questions taken from a very old issue of Writers Digest, and luckily had transcribed them before I moved--the original has vanished. They can make for a long bio file, but they really do help turn stick figures into 3D humans. I would credit the author if I knew who s/he was:


"If you're not sure who your characters are, just ask them.

"Playwrights and teleplay writers alike have found that 'quizzing' their characters solidifies them in the writers' minds. For example, how would your main character answer these questions?"

1. What incident in your childhood most affected you?

2. How do you feel about your parents?

3. What are your attitudes toward sex? Toward religion?

4. State your philosophy of life.

5. How would you spend a million dollars?

("A thousand pounds? I've never even had a hundred!" GREAT economical use of dialog in that bit of D&D...)

6. Describe your favorite hobbies.

7. Describe what you hate the most.

8. List your proudest achievement.

9 . What are you most ashamed of?

10. Describe your favorite fantasy.

11. Describe what you try hardest to avoid.

12. Who has had the greatest influence on you?

13. What are your chief taboos?

14. What kind of person would you like to be?

15. How far away from your ideal are you?

16. How do other people react to you?

17. What's your attitude toward money?

18. How do you forsee your future?

19. What, if anything, is worth dying for?

20. What makes life worthwhile?

21. Are you popular?

22. Are you self-centered?

23. What do you think is man's (sic) purpose on earth?

Answers to these questions, and others you may want to add to the list, give you a well-rounded view of your protagonist's personality and attitudes. Ask these questions of all your prominent characters.

[charlotteschaos.livejournal.com]

I do something like that, actually. I write up character profiles for each of my characters in original fics. Of course, writing for fandom is a little different, you have rules that are already set up for you. I also like to pick out pictures for them so I know always whom I'm describing. But I also tend to pick out things like their favorite colors and attribute quirks to them.

I'd definitely be interested in finding out what books are worth anything for writing. I was at BN last night and was a bit worried about being immobilised by any of the books I picked up. Then again, I'm still pretty new to all of this ;)

[mzcalypso.livejournal.com]

Two good books on grammar & punctuation are "The Transitive Vampire" and "Eats, Shoots and Leaves." Those deal with the mechanics... for storytelling, pacing, and everything else, I've found that reading books by good writers helps enormously--not just as entertainment, but paying attention to how, for instance, Lois McMasters Bujold will set up a problem for a character and, chapters later, have that problem be the key to a crucial scene. No how-to book I've ever read has taught me as much as good fiction writers (some of them fan writers). It's more work to dig it out for yourself, but the work makes it stick, if that makes sense.

[charlotteschaos.livejournal.com]

It does make sense and JK has said as much, which is partially why I don't read loads of fanfiction. I mean, it's fun, it's escapist, but it's not always good writing. (Then again, not every book I read is either... ) I do try to look for, "Why am I attracted to this book? What is it about the plot that interests me? How do I feel about the dialogue?"

I've read others mentioning "Eats..." but I'd thought it was just about grammar and punctuation. I'll check it out, thanks!

[mzcalypso.livejournal.com]

Eats is just about punctuation, but it's written so hilariously it's worth reading--like finding a good rant on lj.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

You know, I've tried this, and the characters just go dead as soon as I submit them to it. (On the other hand, I find that I can answer those questions on behalf of most of the slash characters I write, so maybe it works as a self-test.)

[lavinialavender.livejournal.com]

*nods* I have Orson Scott Card's book. My stepfather (writer!) gave it to me for Christmas. I found it a little more than moderately helpful.

[auctasinistra.livejournal.com]

I'm sure all of you understand that in no way am I reading plot books to avoid actually writing anything. I would never do that.

Hee. I've never done that either. A lot.

[opera142.livejournal.com]

Here via metafandom.

I think Theme & Strategy by R. Tobias (same writers' digest series) is a book you'd really enjoy. It explains pattern in plot, characterization and other fictional elements. In spots it gets a little plodding, although nowhere near as badly as Bickham book does. The most helpful portion of the book is the ongoing discussion of the 36 plots of storytelling--basically every (sensical) story ever told can be fitted into one of those 36 plot types. He lists the necessary character casts and basic scenarios for each, and goes into a bit more depth on a few.

He wrote another book, 20 master plots and how to build them that explored the idea further. My guess is that the 36 got narrowed down to 20 because some plots are outdated and some could be blended with others. Theme & Strategy was the better of the two, IMHO, but if you like one, chances are you'll like the second.

From a fan fic writer's POV, I found Card's book very helpful (then again, I found it very helpful with original fic, so maybe there's some bias). I agree with your point about most of his warnings being about things fan fic writers have already been drilled on. However, his thoughts on "bad guys" served as a good reminder for me to characterize everyone. When writing fan fiction it's easy to forget to give the bad guys reasons for what they do and who they are. Everyone knows they're jerks, you don't have to sell it, right. But I've found in my writing, when I do take the time to remind readers why the bad guy is the bad guy, my stories seem much more vivid and the tension inside them crackles.

Also, I think Card's points on jeopardy and suffering should be required reading for angst authors. Fan fic main characters are some of the wussiest, whiniest pieces of wet toast on the planet. Card gives great hints on how to build sympathy for them with reducing them to sobbing ninnies.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the rec. I'll put in a request for interlibrary loan.

And, yes, I very much liked Card's thoughts about how you can make your characters fail over and over (as they have to, if you're going to have any conflict) without making them seem like failures.

Just passing through

[malograntum.livejournal.com]

I don't know what Card says about it, but if you're interested in heroic failure, you might enjoy the Wordplay column (http://www.wordplayer.com/columns/wp08.Impressive.Failure.html) on the subject.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

That was a very interesting read! Thanks.