TECH: Preparing for nanowrimo -- seven point story structure?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting 15 Oct. 2012

Nanowrimo is coming! Batten down the hatches and get ready to write. The tsunami of words is just ahead.

That's right. November is National Novel Writing Month, and it's only two weeks away! So, it's past time to start thinking about what you're going to do. Oh, sure, you can always just sit down and start writing, and if you spend a little bit of time every day, you probably will get 50,000 words, just 1666 and 2/3 words a day. (Hint! Aim high, 2000 words a day, and when you have a chance at the beginning, go ahead and overrun. 3000, 4000, 5000 words! Build yourself a buffer, because Thanksgiving is coming, and the end of November is here before you know it.)

But, a little bit of thinking and planning never hurts. It's not cheating, lots of people put together outlines, notes, and other preparation to help their writing.

First, go over here http://www.nanowrimo.org/ and sign up. Do a little bit of thinking about how you're going to do your writing -- where are you going to keep the files, do you want to keep a spreadsheet to help you track, and so on. And then...

Let me suggest two resources for the seven point story structure. You can go over here http://www.writingexcuses.com/2012/10/07/writing-excuses-7-41-seven-point-story-structure/ and listen to a short 15 minute podcast about it. Or if you want more detail, there is a five-part YouTube series -- roughly 10 minutes each by Dan Wells over here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcmiqQ9NpPE Dan Wells on Story Structure, Part 1 of 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrP9604BEOM Dan Wells on Story Structure, Part 2 of 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNZDL9-dN8k Dan Wells on Story Structure, Part 3 of 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WC_WWErNd8 Dan Wells on Story Structure, Part 4 of 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD-T-ku4ynk Dan Wells on Story Structure, Part 5 of 5

15 minutes or an hour? I know, you don't have time. All right here's the essence of the plan. Just seven little steps:

1. Hook: where does the character start?
2. Plot turn one: what is the call to action?
3. Pinch one: what makes this difficult for the character?
4. Midpoint: when does the character quit reacting and start acting?
5. Pinch two: what makes this absolutely necessary for the character?
6. Plot turn two: what is the final bit of information, the aha! that lets the character save the day?
7. Resolution or climax: where does the character end? Do they save the day, or lose it all?

Dan Wells suggests that you start by figuring out your climax. Where do you want to end up? What is the triumph or disaster that the character achieves in the end? How do they change?

Then go back and figure out the hook in comparison to the climax. If the character is going to be a hero at the end, they should be ordinary at the beginning. Riches? Well, you better start with Cinderella in rags, cleaning out the trash.

Then fill in the other five points. What gets the character started, what trouble do they run into? When do they take charge of the problem and step up to solving it? What makes it crucial, dire, something that they are going to do no matter what? What illuminates the darkness, and gives them hope that they can actually win?

Now, before you say there are lots of other things in your story -- try/fail cycles, scene-sequel sequences, revelations, thrills and chills galore -- yes! These are the high points, seven major bends that help structure your story. Kind of like markers at the turning points for a marathon? In between, you will cover a lot more territory, but when you get to the turn, it's good to have a marker to let you know which way to go next.

Okay? So -- there's one quick help towards nanowrimo. Just sit down and brainstorm seven points. Where do you start, what's the first turn, what pushes the character, when does the character start pushing ahead, what happens to make the character really sweat, what makes them perk up and say, "I can do this!", and finally, how does it all come out?

Two weeks? Plenty of time to polish those seven points and get set!

Write?

TECH: Save the Cat meets nanowrimo

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting 27 Oct 2012

All right. Nanowrimo is just around the corner, but we've still got a couple of days to get prepared. And looking at the book Save the Cat! By Blake Snyder, I think we can get some pointers.

After all, Blake starts out in chapter 1 talking about the logline. The one line answer to the question what's it about. What's the heart of the story? In particular, you need to include four components.

The first one is what Blake calls irony, or the hook. Something unexpected, emotionally intriguing, something that makes you want to read that story.

The second one is a compelling mental picture. Something that sparks our imagination.

The third one is the one that you may not think you need. A good logline for the movie industry suggests who the audience is and how much it's going to cost. For your story, you probably want to think about the audience. Cost… Well, how big is this story?

Fourth, and final, a really good logline usually includes a killer title. Not generic, the headline of a specific story.

So spend a little time figuring out what your story's going to be about. You need some ideas?

1. Switcheroo -- take a dramatic, thriller, or horror story and make it a comedy. Or, take a comedy story and turn it into a dramatic, thriller, or horror story. Switch those genres, and see what happens!

2. Fish out of water -- name five places that no one would send an FBI agent to solve a crime, and then send an FBI agent there. Private eye, secret agent, teenager -- take a character and put them somewhere unexpected.

3. What kind of a school? Name five examples of unusual kinds of schools, camps, classrooms. What happens when someone tries to put your students in that school?

4. Opposites attract? Take a couple of people who would naturally be on opposite sides of a burning issue, and get them together.

5. Are you after me? Pick an unusual person, animal, or thing that someone might suspect of being a serial killer, murderer, arsonist, or something else. Why did your character suspect them? And what is your character going to do about it?

Psst? Let me toss in that Marion Zimmer Bradley said a good story is

1. A likable character
2. Overcomes almost insuperable odds (opposition, conflict!)
3. By his or her own efforts
4. Achieving a worthwhile goal.

I kind of think that filling in those four parts also makes a pretty good statement about what your story is.

All right. Once you've got your idea, your logline, you probably need to think about the genre. Maybe you already did, but take a minute and figure out which of these "standard" stories you're telling. It'll help you to figure out what needs to go into it.

1. Monster in the house -- there's some limited area, and a monster is loose in it.
2. The Golden fleece -- a quest by any other name.
3. Out of the bottle -- wish fulfillment.
4. Dude with a problem -- an ordinary guy in extraordinary circumstances.
5. Rites of passage -- change of life.
6. Buddy love -- two people. Odd couple, starcrossed lovers, all kinds of two-somes.
7. Whydunit -- a mystery!
8. The fool triumphant -- when the clown wins, we all cheer.
9. Institutionalized -- the system or the individual?
10. Superhero -- the extraordinary guy in ordinary circumstances.

20 master plots, these 10 genres, add in your own favorites. Right now cross genre mash ups seem to be popular, so if you really want to do a steam punk romance with vampires, go for it. But whatever it is, figure out the general type of story.

Now, with your idea and genre in hand, Blake suggests you focus on whom it's about. Who is the hero? What do they want? Who is going to have the most conflict, the longest and hardest emotional journey, and a primal goal that we can all root for? Who can the readers identify with, learn from, be compelled to follow, believe deserves to win, and has a primal reason that the readers will buy? What's the key to your good guy and your bad guy?

Idea, genre, characters. The next step is where Blake recommends a 15 step pattern. His very own beats. Some people use the hero's journey, other people use three act structure, or a seven step story structure. One way or another, a lot of people recommend hanging your story on a standard scaffold.

Blake Snyder's 15 Beats

1. Opening image
2. Statement of the theme
3. Set up -- who are the characters, and what's the hero missing?
4. Catalyst -- What kicks off the action?
5. Debate -- wait a minute?
6. Break into act two -- The hero takes that step
7. The B story -- changeup
8. Fun and games -- let's try it out
9. Midpoint -- raise the stakes, hit a false victory
10. The bad guys close in
11. All is lost! The mentor dies, friends turn away
12. The dark night of the soul.
13. The break into act three. Aha! There is hope!
14. The finale. The climax. The hero wins.
15. The final image

You can find the hero's journey or the seven step story structure out there on the web. Briefly, the hero's journey looks like:

1. Ordinary world
2. Call to adventure
3. Refusal of the call
4. Meeting the mentor
5. Crossing the first threshold
6. Tests, allies, enemies
7. Approach to the inmost cave
8. Supreme ordeal
9. Reward (seizing the sword)
10. The road back
11. Resurrection
12. Return with elixir

The seven step story structure is

1. Hook: where does the character start?
2. Plot turn one: what is the call to action?
3. Pinch one: what makes this difficult for the character?
4. Midpoint: when does the character quit reacting and start acting?
5. Pinch two: what makes this absolutely necessary for the character?
6. Plot turn two: what is the final bit of information, the aha! that lets the character save the day?
7. Resolution or climax: where does the character end? Do they save the day, or lose it all?

Heck, here's a quickie 3 act, 2 door version:

1. Inciting incident
2. The first door of no return
3. Conflicts and complications
4. The second door of no return
5. The climax

The key to all of these is realizing that they are suggesting some key steps in the plot, some scenes that almost always are there. Show where the character is starting, and what kicks them out of that. Make them struggle, and then... take the first step! Now, in the middle, there should be tests, struggles, conflicts, leading up to... taking the second step! And, now, we have the climax, the point of the whole thing.

But aren't there more than (seven, 12, 15) scenes? Of course there. Blake suggests that most movies have about 40. So you need to add more scenes around and between the key ones. This is where Blake suggests using a cork board, index cards, and pushpins. But you can also do this on paper. A lot of people simply write one sentence for each scene, and move them around as needed. I used to recommend "stepping stone" diagrams. Put your beginning at the top of the page, and your ending at the bottom, then put bubbles in between with a phrase for each scene. This works reasonably well for short stories, but for longer works, the page is likely to get pretty crowded. Whatever works for you.

Blake does suggest an interesting structure for his cards. He starts off with the setting, where are we. Under this is the basic action of the scene in simple sentences. Characters in conflict, mostly. And at the very bottom, there's a plus/minus which is where you write the emotional change that occurs in the scene. The other one is >< and beside that you should write the conflict, what someone wants, and what's blocking them.

You might also want to think about scene and sequel, the idea that we have a scene full of action followed by a sequel where the character reacts, analyzes, thinks about what to do next, and makes a decision.

Idea, genre, characters, broadbrush outline, and a list of scenes, with setting, action, emotional change, and conflict? Hey, if you have all that...

YOU'RE READY TO WRITE!

Psst? I'll write something later about brainstorming before writing scenes. For right now, just get your scenes in order!

Nanowrimo, here we come!

TECH: Jumpstarting your writing for nanowrimo

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting 31 Oct 2012

Whoops! I said I was going to add something about brainstorming scenes, didn't I? See, along with the notion of at least giving yourself a rough outline of scenes to work from, quite a few people have found that doing a little brainstorming at the start of each writing session -- or at least whenever you start a new scene -- can really help you churn out lots of words. I think I've seen someone claiming that they went from 2,000 words a day to 10,000 word a day, just because they started each writing session with a little focused brainstorming session.

In fact, over here, Maya Lassiter talks about her approach.

http://johndbrown.com/2012/07/generating-story-14-freewriting-from-inquiry-to-outline-to-scene-to-draft-with-author-maya-lassiter/

She uses a particularly formatted sentence when she is making her list of scenes. You might want to use that same format. For each scene, try writing out this sentence:

1. A protagonist with a need
2. in conflict with
3. an antagonist with a need
4. in an interesting setting
5. with a twist.

Twist? Turn. Change in expectations.

However, the real meat of this is that when you're sitting down to write the scene, before you start writing, spend 10 to 15 minutes brainstorming with a worksheet of various questions. For example, you might want to use some of these:

One Sentence Description:
Problem: What does the main character want in this scene?
Blocks: What persons or forces are in the way? What do they want?
Value: What's at stake? What is the price of getting there?
Charge: What is the charge, plus or minus, for the main character as the scene opens, and as the scene closes?
Turning point: When does a gap open between expected and actual results? What is that gap?
Beat Pattern: What action/reaction exchanges are there?
Where are we?
-- Fun, cool, weird, odd, details, surprises for the reader?
-- Time, weather, etc.?
-- Background or world building details?
Who is here?
-- What's the situation for each character?
-- Who is driving this scene?
-- What is their concrete objective/goal?
-- What do the others want (motives)?
-- Fun/cool stuff? Surprises for reader?

What story lines will have beats here?
-- progress or trouble?
-- points of conflict?
-- obstacles?
-- Turn?

Opening/transition:
Current situation:
Setting, significant details:
Next big crisis:
Desired effect in reader:
Events:
Emotions:
Character's unique reactions:
Ending hook:

You could probably mix in Longyear's 10 questions, even though they're intended for short stories. They work pretty well for a scene, too.

1. Where are we? (Setting)
2. Who's involved? (Characters, strengths and flaws)
3. Where are we headed? (Goals and motivation)
4. What stops or blocks us? (Obstacles, problems, opposition)
5. What are we going to do? (The problem, and how we expect to overcome it)
6. What is the hook? (How is this going to start, what will interest the reader?)
7. What backfill is needed? (Foreshadowing, internal information)
8. What is the build up? (Longyear uses this for scenes, but in a scene, you still may have build up)
9. What is the climax?
-- How does the character change?
-- How is the problem resolved?
Remember that most scenes end in disaster -- either no, and or yes, but. The goal is NOT achieved, AND there are further complications. Or Yes, the goal is achieved, BUT there are more problems.
10. What is the purpose, the moral or theme?

Oh! You might also use the scene-sequel template as a basis for brainstorming? The scene is where the action is, so you need to dive into the problem or conflict, then wrestle with it for a while, probably with try-fail cycles (the hero tries this, and fails. Then the hero tries something else, and fails. And then the hero tries again, and probably falls flat on his face!). Build up to the scene ending. And then consider filling out the sequel. The reaction. Start with the emotional blast. Then the hero can start thinking again, and figure out just what went wrong. Next, what are we going to do next? Come up with the alternatives, and then make a decision, a plan, that leads to... The next scene!

Okay? Don't get carried away with making a runaway set of questions. You can always add more, and consider some twists and turns on the setting, characters, actions, emotional change, and conflict in the scene. The real key here is simply spending the first little bit of your writing time brainstorming, answering the questions that sparked your interest and help you visualize the scene, and maybe even doing kind of a mini outline of this particular scene. And don't get carried away -- you don't want to spend all of your writing time brainstorming. 10 to 15 minutes to get set, and then write that scene.

All right? So in preparation, we roughed out a logline -- the overarching idea. Considered the genre, thought about characters, did a quick outline of the key scenes, and then made a list of scenes, with notes about the setting, action, emotional change, and conflict for each one.

That let's us sit down to write with a clear vision of the whole thing. And when we pick a scene from our list, now we've got just a little more brainstorming to help spark the writing. Take your list of scene questions, and jumpstart each scene.

Ready? Set? ... GO NANOWRIMO!

TECH: Nanowrimo, here we go!

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting 10 Nov 2012

Hey, all. Hopefully you're grinding away on your masterpieces, with wordcount growing day by day. Of course, even if you haven't done anything, there's still 20 days left -- which means at 2,500 words per day, you can still break 50,000. And 2,500 isn't that hard. Just put the time in, and let those words flow, and... you can do it!

For everyone who has already crunched along for the first 10 ten day -- congratulations! You're building that habit of daily writing, of pushing out some part of the story each and every day, while keeping at least a bit of a glimpse of the overall tale in mind. Novels aren't built in a day! No, they take a continuing push, over time. And that's the habit that nanowrimo builds. So keep on trucking, as we used to say.

For anyone who is struggling with a change that they realized they need to go back and make, whether it's just a little more foreshadowing, or the character who should have been introduced before, or maybe that plotline that wasn't even mentioned -- go ahead and write down what's involved. Give yourself a list of the changes needed, and why you think you should make them. THEN keep going. Pretend that you've made the changes, and keep write on writing. Yes, later, you'll go back and make those changes, and you'll be glad you noticed it and made the notes now, but... right now, you need to keep the momentum moving forwards. Okay?

(Well, yes, if you absolutely, positively want to rewrite that chapter -- go ahead and do it. Don't bother playing with little changes, but doing a complete rewrite, yeah, okay. But keep writing, keep churning out the words!)

What about the story that looks as if it's going to end tomorrow? Or that just doesn't seem as interesting as it did when you started? You can either let the current story end -- and then pick up with what happens after the happily ever after, or to the kids, or... just keep going! There's probably more story there, you just need to figure out what else might happen. Or consider mixing in a few other subplots. After all, just because plain jane has found her man, doesn't mean that all of her friends are ready for a happily ever after, right? Or what about the car, the house, the job... complications and confusions can abound! Heck, what happens when the CIA abducts the dear man as he tries to walk to the altar?

As for adding interest and spice -- twists and stakes! What else could happen? What else could it cost your characters? You mean the bookstore they just walked into is really a recruiting station for aliens? Go ahead and push the limits, add a gun, a bomb, an asteroid that is going to destroy the earth, or whatever! Keep that story twisting in the breeze, and see what happens!

Okay? 10 days and counting! So keep those words coming, and let's do some writing!

TECH: the mysteries of outlining?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting 11 Nov 2012

Okay. On another list, someone commented that this article was really helpful to them in getting their nanowrimo story under control and rolling, so what the heck, I went and took a look. It's notes on a writing seminar that Mary Robinette Kowal ran, and indeed, it's pretty good. If you want, you can go over here and take a look:

http://blog.karenwoodward.org/2012/10/mary-robinette-kowal-and-mysteries-of.html

But since I know you're trying to avoid distractions and crunch out those nanowrimo words (one, two, three, four... A hundred here, a hundred there, pretty soon you've got a thousand, and then a couple thousand, and... Keep on adding to that wordcount!) Where were we before I got distracted? Oh, right, here's a summary of the key points.

1. Start by writing down a list of all the events in the story. Note that you really shouldn't get crazy about trying to be complete, totally accurate and so on, just make sure you have the major stuff down and accept that you are probably going to adjust this list as you go.
2. Look for plot holes and fill them.
3. Look for duplication and extra stuff, and remove the extra!
4. Flesh out your scenes. For each one, list what happens, where, when, character arc, time of day, and who is the main character.
5. Consider whether you want to mess with multiple POVs or not. If you do, look at the balance. You may want to change some scenes, which may involve adjusting the stakes in those scenes. Do make sure that the POV character has something at stake in the scenes they are involved in -- change the POV character if they don't, or change the scene to give them something! Oh, and overall? Make sure that the main character is the first character we meet, and really is the main POV.
(And from the next posting...)
6. Nest MICE subplots as needed. Milieu plots are about going to a strange place and returning, with the focus on the strange place. Idea stories are the traditional problem and solution tales. Character stories are about changes in the person or his role. Event stories are where something is out of whack with the world, and we are either restoring it or moving into a new world.
7. Use the power of "yes, but" and "no, and." Nearly every step in the story, and most of the scenes should end with either yes, they got their goal, BUT things got more complicated OR no, they didn't get what they wanted, AND things are even worse than they were before.
8. Use scene-sequel to make things go. Scenes are the action parts. For each one, figure out who the POV character is, usually based on the question of who has the most at stake. Give them a goal, active and specific. Mix in the conflict, or scene question. And finish things off with a setback, the scene answer (yes, but OR no, and?). Sequels are the reaction parts, where the character shows us the events being digested. First the emotional reactions, then the rational review and consideration of the facts, followed by setting up new plans and directions, and making a decision as to what should happen next.

The main part of this is really the idea of the outline. Make that list, refine it, and make sure that every scene does what it should.

And keep going! Remember, only you can write your nanowrimo tale! So get those words down now.

Write?