TECH: Save The Cat Meets Nanowrimo (Replay!)

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 Reposted 10/30/2020

Posted Saturday, October 29, 2016 7:15 PM

(You may think you saw this before! You're right! It's deja vu all over again! Still, I think it might be helpful as we rev up for nanowrimo!)

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!