The Place For My Writers Notes

original posting 8 January 2010

Writers Digest, October 2007, pages 79-80, have an excerpt from What Would Your Character Do? by Eric Maisel and Ann Maisel, along with a short sidebar about choosing your character's career by Nancy Kress. The main article suggests that you create a character notebook, with your notes organized around 12 categories. I prefer to think of them as questions that you might want to use to provoke thinking about your character. In any case, here are the 12 categories:

1. Basic Headline. This is a one line, short summation that says how this character is likely to react. Edith Bunker in All in the Family "would react as Jesus Christ might have reacted." Is there a principle, a core that defines this character?
2. Basic history. Everyone has a history, extended family, social cultural and religious roots, family myths and secrets, family rules and customs, pivotal childhood and adolescent events, etc. You don't need to sketch out their entire history at first, but keep track of these as you work. What's behind them?
3. Archetypal, categorical, or stereotypical resonance. Archetypes like Aphrodite, Hercules, or whatever? Categorical roles -- the beat cop, the sniveling clerk, etc.? How about a stereotype like the best friend, Watson, or other? Identifying those resonances lets you add features and behaviors aligned with or opposed to the base. Who or what is this character like?
4. Actions and reactions. Every scene, you see the character acting and reacting. Put notes on circumstances or triggers, and how the character acts/reacts to them. What makes them jump, and what's the character do?
5. Moral Valence. In the crucible of your story, what is the core of this character? Good-bad, trustworthy-or-not, sober-impulsive, principled-a rat, kind-cruel? Are they light or dark? Is this character a hero or a villian?
6. Dreams and ambitions. What do they wish for, what do they want, where would they like to go?
7. Inner life. Each character has a rich internal life, which may or may not be explicit, depending on the pov and such. But you can still record what the character is thinking, hoping, intending. What is this character thinking? What is the internal monologue going on? Is the character an optimist or pessimist? In each scene, imagine what the character is thinking as they act/react. What's the character thinking?
8. Shadow sides and difficulties in living. Everyone has flaws, angry moments, and irritations. What are the difficulties that this character has with life?
9. Consequences of upbringing. In real life, we may never know how upbringing ties to behavior, attitudes, beliefs, and actions. But in fiction, ah, you are the boss, and you can choose to connect the dots for the reader. So, what difficulties of growing up are linked to problems and actions of today? Was it really father's criticism that led to our hero's fits of rage today? What seeds of today's life were planted in this character while growing up?
10. Power, sexual potency, and alphaness. Characters tend to be considered powerful, sexy, leaders or not. Keep track of the alpha drive of your character.
11. Cultural component. "Each character is a representative of culture." Lots of niches, of course, from the political party to the music that the character listens to. Food, entertainment, and so forth help define who a person is in a culture -- and who a character is. So, how does this character relate to their society and culture?
12. Meaning web, beliefs, opinions. How does your character see the world around them and make sense out of it?

The key, of course, is figuring out who this character is in your story, and how they will act. What makes them act like that? Who is this person, and how can you show that to the reader?

And the sidebar -- choosing a career for your character. Most people have to make a living somehow. Even when it doesn't come up in the story, knowing what your character does can help understand them. So, when you are choosing a career for your character, think about:

1. What aspects of their personality does the job demonstrate? Sure, some of the reaction will be stereotypes, but scientist, janitor, doctor, actor, etc. are expected to think and act differently.
2. Deepen characterization by showing how the person feels about their job and how well they do it.
3. Think about how the job links to plot. Perhaps the job put the character in the right place and time to observe critical events? Or, problems with the job drive the plot? And, of course, the job situations can help or hinder other plot problems.
4. Use occupations that you understand or want to learn about. Details from experience or research can make the job, and the person, come to life.

So -- characters need to be more than just cardboard cutouts.
Write?

original posting: Thu, 29 Apr 1993 18:32:01 JST

Please note that this is a summary of what I consider the important parts of Bickham's book. It does not reflect all the material in his book (you really should read it), nor does it contain a lot of my normal fascinating prose stylistics. Having said that - hope it gives you a few clues about a reasonably good craft book...

Scene & Structure
Jack M. Bickham
Writer's Digest Books, 1993

One point to make clear at the beginning is that Bickham is NOT prescribing the form of presentation. You should use your best dialogue, description, and other tools to drape and form the selected scene. All that he is describing is the bare bone structure that underlies your writing. How you doll it up is left to your discretion - whether you like scenic description, stream-of-consciousness inwardness, flashback fantasies, or some other way of covering the structure is your choice. He is definitely NOT providing a canned plot for you to work with, although you might use his tools to extract such a plot from your favorite book or two...

The main structural component described is the sequence of scene and sequel.

A scene starts with the goal of a viewpoint character, proceeds through conflict, and ends in tactical disaster for the viewpoint character. The reader responds to the goal by forming a scene question, which should be specific, definite, have an immediate goal and clear connection to the overall plot goal, and have a simple yes/no answer.

A scene consists of moment-by-moment action constructed using stimulus (internalization) response pieces. Stimulus and response must be visible, usually dialogue or action, while internalization allows the thoughts of the viewpoint character to be explained.

The tactical disaster ending a scene should be an unanticipated but logical development that answers the scene question, relates to the conflict, and sets the character back. The three possible endings are no (simple failure); yes, but... (conditional success - usually setting up a dilemma); and no, plus... (failure, plus new problems).

While scenes may be linked with a transition (simple change in time, place, viewpoint), the full element needed is a sequel, containing emotional response, thought, decision, and new action. In a sense, the scene acts as stimulus, which must be followed by sequel acting as response. If a sequel must be skipped (due to time pressure, etc.), there should be a later "flashback" sequel, completing the sequence for the reader.

A story (basically novel) begins with a significant change that threatens the main character's self-concept. This, in turn, causes the character to form an intention or story goal in response, which provides the reader with a story question. The end of the story occurs when the story question is answered. The story focus must be on material that relates to the story question.

To plan a story -

1. identify the main character's self-concept
2. pick a significant event that threatens that self-concept
3. determine the moment of change that you will start with
4. lay out the intentions/goals the character will attempt to use to fix
5. lay out a plan of action for the character to try
6. determine when/where/how to answer the story question

Bickham suggests the following major ways to structure the scene/sequel sequences:

1. scenes move main character further and further from quick attainment of goal
2. scenes develop series of new and unexpected troubles, although not obviously related
3. scenes require character to handle unrelated problem before returning to original action line
4. interleaved subplots
5. plot assumption puts deadline (ticking clock) into action
6. plot arranged so that options dwindle
7. plot arranged so that complications and developments previously hidden are revealed

One point should be made clear - a scene/sequel sequence is NOT a chapter. Bickham points out that "chapter breaks" are a relic of earlier publishing (when novels were published as serials), and you should never use a chapter break as a transition. Place chapter breaks at the moment of disaster ending a scene, in the middle of conflict, or some other point that keeps the reader reading. Bickham suggests that most chapters have more than one scene.

(my gloss - remember 1000 nights and a night and make each chapter break a cliff-hanger!)

The book also contains a large amount of material dealing with problems in handling scenes, variations you might want to try, and other fine points. There are plenty of exercises, annotated examples, and so forth to make this a useful study book.

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Strategy Worksheet
    Main character's self-concept
    Significant event that threatens self-concept
    Moment of Change to start with
    Intentions/Goals to fix
    Plan of Action
    When/Where/How answer story question
    Scene Planning -
        Move further and further from quick path to goal
        New and unexpected troubles
        Unrelated problem that must be solved first
        interleaved subplots
        deadline (ticking clock)
        dwindling options
        hidden complications/developments revealed
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Scene/Sequel Worksheet
Scene (consists of Stimulus - Internalization - Response)
    Goal:
    Conflict:
       Who?
       Where?
       How long?
       Twists (4+):
    Disaster (No!, Yes, but..., No, plus)
Transition
Sequel
    Emotion (description, example, discussion)
    Thoughts (review, analysis, planning)
    Decision
    New Action
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