The Place For My Writers Notes

Meandering Our Way through Plot and Structure (13)

Where were we before we fell into the summer doldrums? Ah, yes, muddling through the middles in Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell (nothing to do with Muggles, honestly). That means we're in Chapter 5 and we are about to ARM ourselves for confrontation. Action, reaction, more action. Your lead character needs to be doing something to move the plot along. Plot results from the character taking actions to solve problems trying to gain their goal or desires. So we need a character with an objective and the action towards it, along with opposition, obstacles, problems to overcome.

One of the problems is that often you have characters who are on the same side with similar interests. This can result in lifeless scenes without much interest. To spice them up, you need to add conflict or tension. Maybe the surroundings, or perhaps other characters, can add opposition. However internal tension is probably the strongest driver. All you have to do is think about why the characters would not cooperate. Fear, competition, all those good emotions and motives. Of course, as someone suggested, if things are getting boring, have someone pull a gun. Instant tension.

Write actions and justify them. Remember that the lead character should almost always lose, not attain their desires or their goals, actually end up in a worse situation. Action.

And then reaction. Emotional, but then a commitment to more action.

One of the big problems of act two or the middles is keeping the reader interested. Action, reaction, more action, but what keeps them going? Two big principles: stretch the tension and raise the stakes. Now let's see, Bell has 10 pages about stretching and raising.

Stretching the tension. Step one: set up the tension. What problem has the potential to seriously hurt the character? Step Two: Stretch the physical. Slow down. Put in every detail of action, thoughts, dialogue, and description. What is the worst thing from the outside can happen to your character? What is the worst trouble that your character can get into? Have you provided the setup for the danger for the readers? Step three: stretch the emotional. Show us the roiling emotions and doubts and anxieties. Now what is the worst thing from the inside that can happen to your character? What is the worst information that the character could get? Have we set up the reader to care about the lead character? Make sure that you stretch the big picture and the small details.

Raising the stakes. Always ask yourself "who cares?" What will the lead character lose? Is it important enough? Look at the plot stakes -- the threat to the lead character from the outside. What physical harm can occur, what new forces can come in, and what professional duty or commitments are at stake? Look at the character stakes -- the psychological or personal image damage is involved? How can things get more emotionally wrenching, who does the lead care about that can get caught up in trouble, and are there dark secrets waiting to be revealed? Finally, look at the social stakes. Are the conditions in the society dire? What are the social aspects of the story that could affect the characters, are there large issues that they are dealing with, or are there groups of characters that can line up on sides?

Be mean to your characters. Make lists of things that can go wrong and sort them from least to worst. Most of the time you want trouble to increase as the story moves along. And your readers will want to know what happens.

Okay. There's a couple more pages at least talking about middles, but we'll stop at this point. Arm yourself with action, reaction, and more action. Then stretch the tension. Set it up, and stretch the physical and emotional tension. Finally raise the stakes -- plot stakes, character stakes, or social stakes. Got it?

Write!

Chapter 3: Powerful Scene Middles

From Make a Scene by Jordan Rosenfeld

So we've taken a look at launching the scene, using characters, action, narratives, or settings. One way or another, the reader has been invited into the scene. What happens next? That's the focus of this chapter.

Jordan starts by defining the middle of the scene. "The best explanation is to think of each scene's middle as a realm of possibility between the scene opening and its ending, where the major drama and conflict of the scene unfolds." However, the middle also can tempt the writer into wandering down narrative side roads and burying the reader in words. You want to hook the reader and keep them going. So how do you keep a reader interested?

Up the ante, heavy on the complications. Most of us like to solve problems and make the world a better place. But the writer needs to complicate the lives of their characters. Make it harder on them. When your characters stake everything they have, it builds anticipation, significance, and suspense that drags readers along.

Jordan suggests using a four column chart to organize your steps. He labels the first column protagonist, although I think it might be character. The second column is the scene intention -- what is this character trying to achieve at this point in the scene? The third column is a complication, what can happen that gets in the way of achieving this? The fourth column is the result -- what happens or what does the character do in the face of this complication. Jordan shows how a scene may have a linked set of these, moving from the original scene intention down the page as the character dances and reacts to the continuing complications of the scene.

Take people and possessions away from the character, withhold desires, add stumbling blocks and intermediate problems, spice with danger, there are lots of complications! This is part of the fun, making lists of what might get in the way and picking the ones that are hardest for your characters to handle, that reveal just what they really are made of. Keep that dramatic tension high.

Jordan reminds us that "While complications build anticipation and drama, you should not make things difficult on characters just because; complications have to reveal character and push your plot forward."

One of the specific tactics or techniques that you can use to raise the ante is to withhold something. Characters have goals, desires, and ambitions. Dangling an object of desire just out of reach -- you've seen children looking in the candy store window, wishing that they could have just a little? That's your reader! So what kind of withholding can you do? First is emotional withholding, where another character isn't giving emotional approval, love, or something else that the character wants. Second is withholding information. All of the clues, secrets, and even simple information can be teasers for your characters -- and your readers. Third is withholding objects. Maybe your character wants something, and other characters keep passing it around, just out of reach. Or maybe they have to find the one true crystal?

Another technique is to introduce danger to the protagonist or someone he or she cares for. Physical or emotional danger can force the character to reveal themselves.

Finally, a third technique is the unexpected revelation. Let the character learn that secret about their life that forces them to reevaluate everything. No matter how the revelation comes -- letters, babbling friends, strangers, television reports, Google snippets -- these are pieces of plot information that transform the self-image of the characters and drive the narrative forward. Think about how you're going to introduce the revelation, and how the character is going to react to it. Sometimes they can be positive, too. Winning the lottery, finding out that father really is still alive, and other positive changes can also make characters jump. What happens when the world changes in an instant?

That's what Jordan has to say about scene middles in this chapter. It's not much about the peanut butter in the sandwich, but it gives us a something to stick to the roof of our mouths? Hum, maybe we should skip lightly past that metaphor.

Okay. Your assignment? Take a scene from a book or story, or even one you are working on. Try making up a chart like the one Jordan described. Simple, right? Here's the headings:

1.  Character
2.  Scene Intention
3.  Complication
4.  Result

You might try doing my trick -- set yourself a quota! -- especially if you are working on the scene. Don't just come up with a single complication, come up with five possible obstacles or complications that could get in the character's way when they are trying to achieve that scene intention or goal. Then pick the one that you think works best, and come up with five possible outcomes or results. Pick the best of those, and then go on.

Or how about taking a few scenes, and thinking about the complications and obstacles involved? That beloved little scene with the short guy trying desperately to figure out how to climb the mountain -- why is he so driven? Which of the various techniques that Jordan mentions really make you cheer for the protagonist, leave you sweating and turning the pages to find out what happens next? Now can you put some of that same high tension in your writing?

Launch your scene, fill the middle with rising ante, and . . . next week, on to the endings!

(or if you are at a conference, you can fill your middle with too much food! I guess that might raise the stakes in some ways?)