TECH: Ride Alongs?

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Original Posting June 29, 2017

All right! Over here

https://madgeniusclub.com/2017/06/28/ride-alongs/

Sarah Hoyt talks about how do you identify the thread of a novel, and how you cut out stuff that just doesn't fit. Oh sure, you can say you do it by your gut, but... that's hard! So what is it that you're doing?

How about "plot is the things that happen?" As Sarah points out, that's not much of a guide. So maybe you try the W? Try-fail sequences, bobbing up and down? Thrillers and mysteries and such, but… What if I want to talk about inner growth? And what if I don't want elephants dropping from the ceiling? Well, dropping walls on your character doesn't work too well. So what about the Hero's Journey? Well yeah! Take a look at the Writer's Journey. But… You can still get lost?

Borrow one! But… Well…

Remove everything that doesn't advance the plot? Cut out all that good stuff?

Follow your theme? You got a theme?

Let's start with a novel is a unit of emotion. "You can write things in such a way that your readers are ride-alongs in a plot that creates a complete emotional experience."

Or how about "a novel done right means the writer takes a ride-along in the space behind the eyes. For a time, you're someone else, and you experience something as intensely as if it happened to you."

Cool! Invite the reader in, make them your accomplice/co-conspirator, and that's how you make a plot!

"When you're looking at your plot in the cool and dispassionate light of day, keep in what enhances the experience and invites readers into that ride-along, and discard everything that doesn't."

[I have to admit, I keep thinking of those old sidecars on motorcycles... now that's a ride-along! Put your helmet on!]

There you go. A simple guide. Now, practice, practice, practice… Also known as…

Write!
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TECH: Foreshadowing? Aka The Shadows of What's To Come? (295 words)

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Original Posting July 7, 2017

Over here https://madgeniusclub.com/2017/07/05/the-shadows-of-whats-to-come/ Sarah Hoyt discusses foreshadowing. Apparently early in her career, she often got criticism that she had no plot. Now, since she was outlining, diagramming, and even borrowing structure/plot from other sources, this puzzled her. Then a friend told her that her plot and structure were fine, but she needed to foreshadow.

Foreshadowing? Giving the reader advance warning without spoiling the surprise. That's right, instead of just dropping walls on your characters without warning, toss in some creaks, a few groans, and... when the wall falls, your reader will cheer!

Feelings, premonitions, dreams, bystanders making pithy observations about where this will all end up -- these are all possible. Signals and hints about what's coming!

Foreshadowing, done right, adds to the tension about how things are going to resolve.

In other words, the problem with surprise is that it feels to the reader as if the author is just tossing random events in. Bad. So... foreshadow! Make us worry about what's coming, give us hints and shadows on the walls, and then... unexpected, but inevitable!

Drown your hints in other actions. Make them vague. But make sure the reader expects something to happen.

Three times? Well, that's the rule of thumb for most things. Three little pigs, three bears, three times the raven crows... okay, maybe not that. But don't depend on one hint -- make sure your reader catches on by giving them three chances.

And then when the surprise comes, they will really be shocked!

Practice? Take a piece you've written or are working on. Check what revelation, climactic twist, or whatever you've put in it. Now, where do you foreshadow that? If you don't have enough hints before hand, add some!

And, as always, write!
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TECH: Four Step Revision? (Moldy Oldie!)

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Original Posting July 14, 2017

Revision! Just how do you tackle that? Well, Writer's Digest, April 2000, on pages 30-33, as an article by Raymond Obstfeld with the title "A Four-Step Plan." And indeed, Raymond lays out four steps to doing revision. I'm just going to grab the headings from each section, and maybe a little bit of the discussion. If you're interested, look up the article!

Now, Raymond recommends two key things. First, compartmentalize the approach – do it in four steps, and focus on only fixing that thing while you're doing that step. Second, he doesn't suggest revising the whole thing in one great big swoop. Instead, he recommends tackling short, self-contained sections – scenes or chapters. Unlike many, he actually discourages writing the whole draft and then starting to revise. Instead, he likes to do short pieces and revise them. Your mileage may vary?

Step one: Structure

Goal: Develop a clear and compelling plot.
Look for: too passive, talking head characters; no plot buildup/anti-climactic action.
How to fix: basically, you're looking to see that the events are in the right order, and that if they are, the scenes build toward a satisfying climactic payoff.

Talking heads happens when nothing's going on – make the scene more active. Every scene should have a beginning, middle, and end! Conflict, complications, and resolution. Now, you may also need to revise the overall structure. Easiest is to create notecards for each scene or chapter, who is in the scene, what happens, how big is it? Then look at the notecards, move them around, add or subtract as needed.

Step two: Texture

Goal: Sharpen descriptive passages to make characters, setting, and action more vivid.
Look for: too much or too little description, research info dump, too many adjectives, info in the wrong place.
How to fix: this step has a lot to do with defining your own style.

How much description? If there's so much that it bogs down, you need to cut. If there's so little that we can't imagine the characters or settings, you need more. Poetic, wonderful stuff that makes you admire the author – probably cut, maybe use later? Watch for word choice, and use strong, rich, evocative terms. Imagine adjectives are $100 bills – don't waste them.

Step three: Dialogue

Goal: Elicit character personality through conversation.
Look for: Too many taglines, too few taglines, taglines in the wrong place, bland or melodramatic lines.
How to fix: Taglines are the "he said" and "she said" parts of dialogue. When there are only two speakers, several lines can go on without telling us who the speaker is. The reader already knows. [Also, the dialogue should be identifiable!]

Make the character voices individual, cadence, tone! Try rearranging where you put the taglines, and vary your use of speech tags and action tags. Keep your tags simple.

Step four: Editing

Goal: Tighten pace and continuity.
Look for: Repetition through implication, slow passages.
How to fix: Cut. Cut. Cut.

Cut. And then make sure your transitions are clear.

Go through all four steps. Now, are you comfortable sending it or publishing it? If not, start again. But at least you know you have looked at all aspects of the work!

There you go!

Practice? Sure. Take a piece you have written, and try walking through the four steps. Now, did your piece end up improved?

Good time to submit it to Writers@mit.edu and see what happens!
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TECH: The Plot Thickens (moldy oldie time again!)

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Original Posting July 31, 2017

[As the summer doldrums warm up… It must be time for doing something?]

Writer's Digest, January 1999, pages 29-32, had an article by Monica Wood with the title "The Plot Thickens." All about complications! It starts out with the assertion that "every good story needs a complication." Or, as Monica explains, "A story needs a point of departure, place from which the character can discover something, transform himself, realize a truth, reject a truth, right a wrong, make a mistake, come to terms. This point of departure is the story's complication." Cool, right?

"A good complication engages the reader, gets the story going, and forms the beginning of a dramatic arc that will lead eventually to the story's conclusion." A critical structural element, but… Often misunderstood. Enter the situation, often mistaken for a true complication.

You start writing your story or just thinking about it, and you have an idea about the character and what he's doing. So you've got a set up. Now something happens. Major accident on the interstate? Some exciting predicament, full of sounds and textures of drama… A textbook complication? Well, no, you probably have just a situation. So what is a bona fide complication? "A complication must either illuminate, thwart or alter what the character wants. A good complication puts emotional pressure on a character, prompting that character not only to act, but to act with purpose." Interesting situations are just that interesting, but they don't motivate the character. A complication means the character is motivated.

Sometimes that's just adding back story! Something at stake, something that turns the terrible accident, the exciting predicament, into a meaningful complication. Something that connects with the character, that brings up desires, memories, all that kind of stuff. The motivation really comes out of the back story, but it transforms that situation into a true complication. Now the actions have meaning.

How can you tell if you got a true complication or just a situation? Well, practice and experience. Monica provides a couple of examples, and adds twists to turn them into complications. Make the character act!

Now is it a good complication? Well, good complications raise the stakes. And then thicken the plot. They open pathways for further complications. More and more choices.

Now, while raising the stakes in thickening the plot, the complication should also create and sustain dramatic tension. Check your complications!

In a story, complications serve a variety of functions. But double check them. Even if they're fulfilling the functions, are the complications strong enough for the story you want to tell. Simple complications might be enough for a short story. Longer stories, more complex complications. And of course, as you get into even longer stories and novels, you need more and better complications.

Now, complications may be just internal, or they may be external. Internal complications often result in reflections, while external complications usually run to action. Sometimes you mix them up, partially internal and partially external.

So, there you go. Start mixing up that story, a dash of character, a bit of setting, maybe a fascinating event… And a healthy set of complications!

Practice? Take a short story, something you're working on, and look closely at the complications. Are they situations? Build up that motivation, that back story, and turn them into real complications. Make your characters act! Now raise the stakes, thicken the plot, build the dramatic tension, check complications versus story weight, and of course, consider the balance of internal and external complications. Make those complications complicated!

Write?
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