The Place For My Writers Notes

Original posting 20 November 2010

Drat, skipped a day again. Yesterday was an odd day for me, as far as nanowrimo goes. I mean, I'm making my words, but somehow? middle of the afternoon, I found myself just sitting there saying I'm not so sure this is going anywhere. Then I took a look at Holly Lisle's Plot notions, and got confused, because she starts with characters? and I wasn't quite so sure I knew my characters in the kind of depth she seems to expect, even if I do know the story I'm telling! So? I took the afternoon off. And went ahead and wrote some words in the evening, just to keep things moving.

Then today, I took a look at a set of YouTube talks by Dan Wells on story structure (5 of them, about an hour's easy listening). Very interesting, because he seems to be stressing a much more event-oriented approach to plot. And along the way, I decided I liked doing events, not trying to delve deeply into my characters' background and personalities.

Link for the first chunk is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcmiqQ9NpPE

And then? I was waiting for Mitsuko, and the TV was on. The daily kid's program, oddly enough. And they had a little tiny vignette. See, there's the big, strong, somewhat dumb character, and the short curious friendly character, and a couple of others. Big, Dumb is a brown slab of a character costume. Short is a little white ball of one. The others are more human.

And they're all playing ball. And the ball gets lost. Short goes to find it, and runs into a stranger! Who is holding the ball, and says, "Hey, you! Is this yours?" Short says, "Yes. Can I have it back?" The stranger shrugs, and tosses it to Short. Then he turns to leave.

And Short says, "Wait. Thank you!" The stranger turns around and kind of sneers. "You're welcome." Then Short says, "Say, would you like to play with us?" The stranger says, "Your friends won't like me." And Short says, "Sure they will."

And then the friends show up. And they aren't very happy to see a stranger. They ask Short if the stranger hurt him, and so forth. The stranger starts to leave again!

And Short says, "Hey, let's play tag. You're it!" and touches the stranger. Who looks around, shaking his head, and says, "Tag? Well?" So the stranger touches one of the friends, who immediately starts screaming. And Big, Dumb grabs the stranger.

At which point Short pushes Big, Dumb who starts to trip and fall on the screaming friend. And the stranger pulls Big, Dumb back, so that he falls on the stranger. Then they all help get everyone standing again. And now we're all friends.

For some reason, that little vignette caught my attention. And reminded me of other "little stories." And I realized that these little stories usually are just actions, very little character development. And yet they are FUN! I mean, yeah, the stranger goes from being a rude unknown to being a new friend, but really, we still don't know what's making him tick. And that's okay.

Anyway, that's what I'm chewing on yesterday and today. The balance between action or event-oriented storytelling and the internal stuff, the psychological intrigue of the internal world.

Let's see. Over here http://community.livejournal.com/writercises/145852.html I reflected a bit on the way that just letting the words flow in nanowrimo can be relaxing, maybe even cleansing. Fun, per se? And then here http://community.livejournal.com/writercises/145935.html I borrowed from Bradbury again, and his lists of words. So many writers talk about making lists, lists of words, lists of phrases, lists of one-line scene ideas? sit down and make your lists! Before writing, while you're writing, whenever you need to stretch a bit. Make a list, check it twice, gonna write out some naughty and nice, nanowrimo month is running along.

By the way, this is the third of the four weekends in nanowrimo this year. And if you're going to be tied up with Thanksgiving (oh, turkey, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, stuffing, ah, all that great eating!) you may consider this the last weekend that you can devote to nanowrimo. So let the words roll! Make those wordmills grind hard and long.

Write!

Original posting 7 June 2008

Make a Scene by Jordan Rosenfeld

So we're looking at the book Make a Scene by Jordan Rosenfeld, and we are in part two, the core elements and the scene. We have looked at the setting and the senses, and now we are going to take a look at character development and motivation. Rosenfeld starts out by reminding us that when we put down a book, what we usually remember or even talk about are the characters. We identify with them, and they bring the scenes to life. Scenes are vehicles for developing people. And of course we the writer have to shape the scenes so that there are opportunities for characters to reveal and express themselves. Scenes need to give characters opportunities to grow and change, to act and react.

Probably the key to developing characters is thinking about how they behave, and what that reveals to the reader about them. Remember that characters act differently with different people and in different situations. You also want to let your characters surprise the readers and each other sometimes. Obviously, your story cannot tell the reader everything about character, but each scene can provide a setting for your character to improvise in. Rosenfeld then suggests four key points.

First, each scene should provide your character with at least one new plot situation or new piece of information to react or respond to. It should also provide a catalyst or antagonist that the protagonist interacts with. Someone needs to help your protagonist change and react OR thwart, oppose, delay and otherwise get in the way of your protagonist. If there's nobody else in the scene, your protagonist will interact with themselves or with the forces of nature.

Second, in every scene your protagonist should be motivated by two things. The first is their intentions for the scene -- what do they expect to do or make happen in the scene? The second is their personal history -- what is the back story or background from which your character does things?

Third, every scene, situation, interaction needs to push the plot and its consequences for the protagonist to be either more complicated or less. More complications build dramatic tension, create character conflict, and makes scenes powerful. Fewer complications probably mean you're resolving some plot threads and heading towards resolution, you're dropping the intensity, or maybe you are lulling the reader before the real dive over the cliff that's coming up.

Fourth, because of these complications -- new information or situations, catalysts or antagonists, motivations, and plot complications -- your protagonist changes. They can change beliefs, behavior, attitudes, relationships, their mind - all kinds of things -- but make sure that they change.

There's a sidebar here about "first glimpse scenes" where the main characters see each other for the first time. These are often key scenes that set the stage for the relationships that will unfold throughout the book.

And back to character development -- plot and character work together. "Your protagonist ought to be indelibly caught up in the plot situation and information of every scene, and should bear or participate in the consequences that follow. Similarly, your plot should not be able to advance or get more complicated without the active participation of your protagonist."

So, let's see. What kind of an assignment shall we consider for this? Perhaps take a scene (of your choice -- from the wider world of writing or your very own work), and take a look at the characters in it. For each and every one, tease out what this scene does for or against them. How do they grow or change in this scene? What causes that, and how is it shown? How does the character react when someone slams the door in their face? What happens? And take a step back, and look at:

1. What was the new information or plot situation?
2. What were the motivations driving the character? In this scene, and from their history?
3. What did this do for the overall plot? Was it more complicated or less at the end of the scene?
4. How did the character change? What did they change? (their underwear? No, no -- think attitudes, beliefs, etc.)

There's a couple more possibilities, playing with changing characters and seeing how the scene changes, or perhaps trying to diddle the plot and seeing how the scene changes, but we'll let those pass for now. Perhaps leave them as exercises for the student to develop?

In the meantime, don't forget . . .
write!

When we write, we let our characters take the bows.