How the Novel Grows--the Plot Edition

I've been singing more than writing--practicing for our newly ordained deacon's first Solemn High Mass as well as our barbershop concert at Piccolo Spoleto festival (local friends, please come!), but even so I've begun working on a new novel, a sequel/standalone to BOUND. As I got familiar with the characters again, nearly 20 years after the events that occur in Bound, I realized I needed a proper structure to tell the story. So when a writing friend from over a decade ago (we met at a Highlights workshop) came for a visit we had a chance to talk shop and the discussion turned to plotting. I promised her that I would send her my favorite resource: in nine boxes. I learned this first on Verla Kay's Blueboards (that were bought out by SCBWI, but now sadly shut down, and who knows whether they'll bother to offer that safe and friendly gathering place again online--I was a longtime moderator on the boards and miss it for its congeniality and generosity of the members). I love how organically I can think about my story and the scaffolding it needs so that all the elements fit together. This doesn't address the subplots, but typically, as my characters develop, so do the subplots. Each character will have his or her own journey through the novel.

I'm also fond of the Hero's Journey. But not being content, I took a deep dive online to see what else was there. And holy smokes I came across a compilation: 16 Narrative Structures to Plot a Book With. I love how different people think about story structures and how they might fit. 

Here's a picture of some of them all on a page. Enjoy! And let me know what's your favorite plotting method, or if you write by the seat of your pants. I did try Writing into the Dark (and in essence, that's what I've been doing these past few weeks exploring my characters), but I find that at some point I need structure to guide my writing, otherwise I end up meandering all over the place. My mewses help! 

NB: Has anyone noticed the palindromic nature of the dates beginning 5/20/25? Fun.

Some Wisdom from Story Masters

Christopher Vogler, me, Donald Maass, James Scott Bell

Ruby and me

Here I am with three of the best teachers on writing and a new friend, Ruby, who is just a bridge away!

I thought about consolidating my thoughts more coherently about this workshop but decided to share what's not widely available in the books and where my mind took me. So rambly style, here are my impressions.

Chris has a lot of the East in him. Don is NY. And Jim represents the West. I found myself thinking, it's a darn good thing we're raising our kids in the South because they'll know how to shoot a gun when the time comes. LOL. I know, what a random thought, but it's not. Don had asked, "Who are we?" Silence descended as we processed the question. "We are certainly not the greatest generation." He paused. "We are the helpless generation." Bingo. Why? I think it's because people don't believe we have anything to fight for. And this is why I am glad to be living in the South, because here it is so much easier to teach the children moral truths, that there are some things worth fighting for. Studying To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee was such a brilliant choice because it brought to light the kinds of books we should be striving to write, books that are salt and light, books that make us want to be better. Each of them spoke about this. How great books enlighten us.

ChrisV spoke about wants vs. needs. We identify with the hero because we want what he wants. We connect. But the hero has a journey to make and it's often about learning what he needs. He made a very important point. People come for the thrill of the story, but they stay for the lesson! The story of Rumpelstiltskin illustrates this beautifully. The girl makes a deal with the imp. He gives her what she wants in a twisty way. But what she *needs* to learn is the value of human life. 

So study mythology and the Hero's journey. We have so much to learn. I like Jane Yolen's thoughts on mythology (Touch Magic) as well as Tolkein's and Chesterton's. These giants have deepened not only my understanding of story but of my faith. It's all good! So it was especially wonderful to have a workshop like this, so highly focused on structure and craft. Sometimes I wonder why everybody is not already Catholic because the story of Christ is the greatest story ever. Creation. Sacrifice. Redemption! What else is there?

At Fort Sumter

Some talk about ISIS came up. And oh boy, don't even compare the Crusades or the Inquisitions to ISIS. I don't know how many in the West are even acquainted with Muslims, or if they know anything about Islam, but I grew up in Bhopal, which has a sizeable Muslim population (over 25%) and believe me, it is not the religion of peace as the West might have you believe. Islam means "submit." If a Hindu marries a Muslim, she must convert. Or die. They do not believe Jesus died on the cross. Folks, in the Art of War, the first principle is to know your enemy.

I won this little book: The Art of War for Writers from Carol's blog. I'd read it a few years ago, but I feel like a warrior owning it and Jim signed it for me!!! Thank you Carol and thank you, Jim, for writing the book!

By the way, James Scott Bell has a new little book with a great new concept about writing from the middle. He speaks about the mirror moment. Of course, I had to go see what exactly happens in the middle of my polished manuscript (that needs another polish now). And wouldn't you know it, I didn't just have a metaphorical mirror, but a real one, where the main character is asking, who am I, where am I going, is this the person I want to be and then the rest of the book is about dealing with the change of heart that occurs. Powerful stuff. Did I plan it? Not exactly. But a little death occurs in the middle.

Ravenel Bridge, taken from Fort Sumter -- you should be thinking about plot points I and II :)

It's good to overlay the 3-act structure with the hero's journey. My favorite is the 9-box method, which I first saw on the Blueboards. And there's the wonderful Snowflake method too. The idea is to use all the tools there are to help you build a solid story upon.

So that Don can come and talk about emotions. Wah!

Don Maass is really good at making you look at the emotional content. We did an exercise writing about joy. Really capturing the sensory details of that moment. Now find a place in the manuscript to give that moment to our character. We read to feel powerful emotions. One thing we concentrated upon was secondary emotions. How to use those to bring out the primary emotions in a reader. Example: The scene in TKAM when the trial is about to begin. Scout is describing it practically as a picnic! A gala event. The whole town is there. But underneath, we sense the dread. And it's powerful. His Breakout Novel Workbook allowed me (a nonfiction, shorty-short writer) to complete a novel. And his 21st Century Fiction is helping me to dig deeper. Folks, do the writing exercises at home. I can guarantee you that your stories will be better. He pushes and pushes you to take your story to the next level. In the space of these three days, I worked on a new (I thought MG novel, but it's really YA, but I feel as though I have material now for three books. Heaven forbid I write a trilogy, when one book will suffice. I am, after all, a magazine writer, who tries to be economical, though you might not believe me with the length of this blog post ... but I am confident that my story is worthy.

And so, I hope I've left you with enough wisdom to inspire and encourage you to study and write. Never give up. One tip from me. Deconstruct.



Sullivan's Island, taken from Fort Sumter

I take apart stories to see how they are put together. This is how I learned to write a multi-scene short story. I did this for a couple of novels. And now I realize I need to do this more, so that I can internalize it even more. This is what Story Masters do as well. They wrote their books after analyzing hundreds of books and movies (what fun research, eh?). Do it for yourself.

I cut out from the workshop a bit early to go to Mass. We only have a month until Laetare Sunday ... and choir practice was a balm to calm my buzzing brain. It was lovely to give thanks to God for this opportunity and to pray for everyone at the workshop and their safe return home to their families. This photo was taken from Fort Sumter a couple of years ago, but there she is ... Stella Maris! I leave you with one of my favorite hymns. Wishing you and your sweethearts a loving and lovely Saint Valentine's Day!

Plot and Pacing

My mind is full. I've been struggling with pacing my novel -- either I race through everything or linger over details that only I care about -- and however it has happened, at the conference, several of the presenters touched on exactly that. Plot, pacing and suspense. Yeah!


In my quest to be efficient (after all, I write short stories) I have managed to write about the various plot threads running in my current novel all in the first chapter. But EN spoke about the importance of having a slower revelation. After his critique, listening to Jay Asher talk about how to build suspense made a lot of sense and I'm eager to apply this in the last third of my book. The basic idea is to ramp up the tension on one plot thread as you're resolving another. That's what keeps the people turning the pages. Of course, the middle can get very tangled, as is the case with my manuscript.


Laini Taylor has generously posted her talk on plotting here. And she has a wonderful site for her writing process (titled Not for Robots). I've found it very helpful. So check them out. Also, a while back there was a discussion on plotting here and here on the Blueboards. All good stuff. Lois Peterson even made a three-in-one plot diagram that shows how three different methods dovetail. Edited to add the link.

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On Plotting

At our conference, I attended two workshops that both ended up on strengthening plot. Lisa Papademetriou (Don't you just love her last name? I do.), talked about being your own editor. She is an excellent speaker, engaged us immediately and set us to work. She asked us to make sure that our stories have a backbone, a structure.

Is there an inciting incident? What is the problem your character is facing?
Is there rising action? Is your character solving the problems and getting into new ones, raising the stakes every time?
Is there a climax?
A resolution?
Denouement?

You must be able to identify the parts of the story. As storytellers, we naturally place characters in situations where they get into trouble, but the important thing is to make sure the story is logical. It's not always easy to make the ending inevitable, yet surprising. But the paybacks are huge.

She's a huge proponent of outlining. I am too. I find that outlines help me to stay on track.

Michael Stearns also spoke about plotting, particularly on generating tension. Ways to this:
Add a clock. Deadlines of any kind add tension.
Hide the why of the story. Reveal slowly.
Take full advantage of subplots.
Know what's pulling or pushing your characters.
Take advantage of the fact that everybody lies!
Follow through on every action. Action leads to reaction.
Be as mean as possible to your characters. That's right. Hurt the bunnies.

Here's a helpful sheet that Lois Peterson made using The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler, Brent Sampson's Nine Steps for Plotting Fiction and the classic 3-act structure.

Happy Plotting.
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Epiphany

Despite a very busy weekend filled with baseball (what else?), June is starting off good on the writing front. Tonight while working on the messy second half of my book, my cat came up for cuddles and pets, so I took a little break and pondered, while the cat purred on my lap. I reached over to take this picture once I'd had my epiphany.

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Bingo! The entire section that I removed (because I was giving my character a break) made me realize how my main character can get to where she needs to be organically. I love it when the plot falls into place. The sad part is that the solution was under my nose all this time, but it never even occurred to me until tonight.

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I want to stress that a book must come to not just its natural conclusion, but the inevitable conclusion, that things had to be this way and no other. I already had the ending, but there was this gap, where I didn't know how to make my characters go to that place. I made up something, but it was too contrived. Now one thing leads to another and the various threads make a tight braid. I can't help but have a big grin plastered on my face.

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Never, never settle for less. I think we know in our bones what the right story is. I also think it helps to pet the cat ... the purr-fect solution eventually does present itself.

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Corollary: do not give your characters a break. They don't need it. Neither do your readers. Make them suffer (the characters, not your readers).

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The cat and I bid you goodnight.

Ciao Meow.

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