TECH: Complicating Plot and Structure (19)

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Original Posting 16 October 2007

Complicating Plot and Structure (19)

Wandering through the book Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell, we find our way to chapter 8 where Bell talks about complex plots. Straightforward fast plots are easy enough, but how do you make it a little bit more complicated. Readers remember little bit more complex plots, but only if they seem simple. That's a contradiction you might want to keep them in mind.

The first suggestion about making memorable complex plots is to think about theme. This is a value or lessen or insight -- a new way of seeing things -- that you want the reader to take away from your story. One way to help clarify it in your own mind is to write it down in one line or sentence. You don't want to force your story to fit the theme, you want your characters and their struggle to create a theme.

The second suggestion is subplots. Add in those extra strands and themes, weave them in so that they feel organic, and make sure that they add to the overall effect. Sometimes these are the personal or interior reflections of the overall theme.

The third suggestion is to think about symbols and motifs. This is tricky because it can be overdone so easily, but done carefully and lightly these can add quite a bit. Symbols represent something else, while motifs are repeated images or phrases. These often come out of the sensory detail that you write into the scenes.

The fourth suggestion has to do with long novels. Especially with the current trend towards thick bricks of books, you may be dealing with a sweep of time and space that is just plain bigger than old-time novelists had to deal with. Bell suggests breaking it into shorter pieces and dealing with each one of them using the LOCK and three act structure.

Parallel plots. Simply two or more plot lines running in parallel. One of the nice things about these is making each plot complete and having a suspense build each time you switch to the other plot.

Structure and style games include nonlinear stories of various kinds. One of the keys to making these work is remembering that the reader wants to know what happened. One way or another, they want a coherent story. Presenting things in a nonlinear way -- the readers will try to fit it into a coherent narrative. Make sure that at the end of your novel they have the pieces they need.

Okay. This chapter is sketchy, since frankly this is the advanced piece. Still, Bell provides several interesting exercises. First, take a piece of paper (or a word table) with three columns. In the first column, list rich or outstanding details from your scenes. In the middle column, list the main characters. And in the last column, list the major settings. Then look across the table for connections between the columns. Pick two or three connections that really stand out, and consider how you might emphasize these in your novel as motifs or symbols.

Second, figure out what you want the reader to learn from your novel. Write it down in one sentence. Then consider ways to bring this out naturally. Avoid the old-fashioned "and the moral of the story is . . ." but make sure there are natural places to see this.

Third, relax and see what images you think of for your novel. You might try playing some music that stirs you, and just let it wash across your mind. Jot down the images and scenes that float up while you're doing this. Repeat this occasionally while writing and revising your novel. You may be surprised at what your subconscious wants to put into the novel.

So that's the chapter on complex plots. Next we'll take a look at character arcs.

Of course, in the meantime, write!

FILL: An interesting point of view

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Original Posting 21 October 2007

The NHK (public television) folks put some odd programs on. Right now there's a visit with a circus camp in Monaco. One bit particularly caught my imagination - they were talking to the fellow who arranges most of the "big shows" for this group, laying out the musicians, lighting, acts, and all. They asked him about the underlying stories, and he responded quite emphatically that he doesn't have any stories in his shows. No, he said, "All I do is provide spectacles - great sounds, great sights - and the audience tells themselves stories." And yet he is known for engaging the audience, exciting them - and even the little clips of his shows that we saw were quite amazing.

Tibetan instruments with people trained in the monks' style of chanting - they said the leader could go for 20 minutes with a single "ooooooooo" booming away from his stomach. This with a single horse prancing in place, the rider quiet, under a spotlight.

Or a huge moon, with a woman suddenly swirling into sight in front of it, and then the lights move to a single figure muffled in white with huge billowing wings fluttering around it as it spins and dances in the center and snow falls. Then it crumpled to the ground, a white pile, and a horse wandered into the spotlight and up to the pile, as if to pull the figure back out, then stopped. And the lights went out.

Fun stuff. And I think I need to contemplate that notion of providing spectacle and letting the audience tell themselves stories.

TECH: Plodding Along in Plot and Structure (20)

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Original Posting 23 October 2007

Plodding along in Plot and Structure (20)

Whoops! Almost forgot the next thrilling episode. Let's see, Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell, Chapter 9 entitled the character arc in plot. Starts right out with the premise that great plots have great characters. And while character creation and implementation rightfully belongs to another book, character change is clearly a part of plots. Memorable plots are not just action, but what action does to the characters. We put a character into a crucible of story that changes them, so that they will emerge a different person. Let your characters grow! Let the events of the plot have impacts on the characters. Create character change in your novels that deepens the plot and expresses the theme.

Character arc is a description of what happens inside of a character. Where did they start, what happened to them, and where are they at the end? Bell suggests that arcs have:

• A beginning point, where we meet the character and get a sense of their layers
• A doorway through which the character must pass, almost always reluctantly is
• Incidents that impact the layers
• A deepening disturbance
• A moment of change, often an epiphany
• An aftermath

Beginning point -- this is where we describe who the person is. The layers? Well, one way to think about a person is like an onion, with layers from the core, beliefs, values, dominant attitudes, and fleeting opinions. The layers get softer as you get further from the core, with easier changes. But watch the ripples build up and dig in.

Way down in the middle is the self-image, with pressures from all over working their way through the layers. It's not easy, but when the self-image shifts, everything is likely to change.

Impacting incidents. Fairly often these involve a motif, or at least having the character reflect on their own self. You need to have pressures to change. And then they get deeper and stronger.

The aftermath, of course, is where we show a change. The person may have declared a change, but we're all from Missouri -- show us the change!

Probably the hardest part of this is that moment of change, the epiphany. Showing the reader the realization that comes to the character and shifts their way of viewing the world -- without melodrama. One way to do this is to skip ahead, simply showing what happens afterwards.

Bell suggests a character arc table. Very simply, start with the main scenes or beats of your story. Make each of these a column, with a short one-word or phrase heading describing the scene. Then in the first column, describe in a few words just who the character is internally. Go to the last column and describe who they should be at this point. Then fill in the columns to show the progression of change, the pressures and the shift that justifies the final outcome. You may find that thinking about the changing character suggests some scenes or actions that you want to add.

Bell suggests three exercises related to character arc. The first one is to analyze a favorite story or novel that has a strong change in the lead character. He suggests that you underline all the passages where the lead is significantly challenged, and then put a checkmark by the passages that show how the challenges affect the character. You might want to use two different colors of highlighter.

The second one is to profile your lead character's personality at the beginning of the plot in terms of the layers -  beliefs, values, dominant attitudes, opinions. And make a list of what things will happen in your plot to challenge or change these elements.

Third and final is to construct a character arc table with the major incidents in your plot, along with the change in your character's inner life.

So that's Chapter Nine! Basically a reminder that plot doesn't do the job by itself, it works with character and setting. Characters acting and reacting, with their own changes reverberating through the personalities - now that sounds like fun!

So, write!