Plotting Your Story, Part 1
Plotting Your Story, Part 1
Thanks to Jane and Pam for inviting me to be with you at Texty Ladies during the month of November. We were discussing how to plot a story, and how we all love to add new tips and tricks to our toolboxes. Since 1997, that’s exactly what I’ve done—collect pearls of wisdom from here and there, adding what I could use to my repertoire, and saving the rest for later. A few times I’ve thought that a technique would never work for me but then I ended up using it five years down the road, so I’ve learned to store, not dismiss, new tricks.
This workshop will be divided into four parts:
Situation/theme
Character
Events/pacing
Point of View
Most writers probably think only the third part and maybe the first have anything to do with plotting, but I agree with Robert McKee on this: character is story and story is character. To paraphrase Dwight V. Swain, the events are only there to show how the character reacts to the dilemma presented by that event, and the feelings evoked. Story is about feelings. We read for feelings.
Ultimately, the author hopes that after a reader has finished her book, the memory of the feeling will linger long after the details of the story have faded away. That is a successful story.
Some people love lush language, some readers prefer a fast-paced terse read, but all want to buy into the theme of the story, so that we can root for the hero and heroine, hiss at the villain, and laugh at the sidekick. To understand theme, I went straight to Dwight Swain’s Technique of the Selling Writer.
***An aside: This book is dreadfully difficult to read, and circuitous at that. The only way I (with my short attention span) could get through this book was to outline it. I’m not kidding about that. But it worked: I managed to get the entire book read and assimilated into my recalcitrant brain. This book, hard as it was for me to digest, really made a difference in my writing and I heartily recommend it. Whatever it takes to get this book read, it’s worth it.***
On page 130-133, Swain talks about the key elements of a story. These are:
Situation
Character
Objective
Opponent
Disaster
If you know these five elements, you can answer Blake Snyder’s question, “What is it?” (Save the Cat, ISBN: 0-8061-1191-7) which he considers the very most important part of plotting a screenplay or book. We have to know the genre and what to expect, or else we have no desire to view or read the story.
So back to Swain’s key elements. If you string these together, you have the theme (or some call it a premise) of the story. Look at the handout I made using this structure. The first three components, character, situation, and objective, form the first sentence, and then opponent and disaster form the second sentence. What do you have?
A pitch!
You haven’t even written the story but you can already pitch it. Expand on this and you have a back cover blurb. Expand a little more and you get a nifty two-page synopsis that’s so popular now.
Let’s take a look at my theme. This is taken from a short story called Single Girls Can’t Jump, originally printed in No Law Against Love, and now available individually as an ebook. Oh, and I forgot to say that no matter how short your piece is, it still needs a theme. It has to be about something.
The first element is situation.
Thrown a thousand years into the future and sitting in jail with a crazy blue-haired woman bent on social reform
This tells you the setting and the heroine’s circumstances. We know it’s a time-travel to the future, and she’s in jail with an aging social activist.
Second component is character.
social activist Shelley Clark
Aha! And the main character is a social activist, too, so why does she think this other lady is off her rocker?
Now we need to know Shelley’s objective.
just wants to get back to 2006 and work to repeal the silly Florida law that bans unmarried women from parachuting on Sundays.
Shelley wants to complete her original goal, but . . .
Her opponent comes on the scene.
When Kael busts her and his mother out of jail
That doesn’t seem like much of an opponent, since he wants to help, but Shelley is a social activist, not a fugitive. Well, until now, anyway.
And if that weren’t bad enough . . . Disaster.
how can Shelley fight a matchmaking mother, a gang of bounty hunters, and the loss of her heart to a man she can’t allow herself to love?
So now we know this is an exciting adventure story and a romance, similar in tone to Romancing the Stone.
You try it! Let me know how you’re doing.
Is anyone participating in NaNoWriMo? If so, be my writing buddy. My username is jacquierogers. Jane is participating, too.
I’ll be checking in throughout the week, so if you have questions, additional remarks, comments, I’ll respond shortly. Have fun!
Jacquie
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Tags: Jacquie Rogers, plotting, theme, Workshop, Writing Craft
That’s great! I love to learn new tricks too!
Looking forward to more.
That is really cool.
Great information!
I’ll have to check out Blake Snyder’s book. (Love the title!) Already read and outlined Story (McKee).
I’m Sapphyre on NaNoWriMo if any of you want to add me to your buddy list. (Mind if I reciprocate?)
And, of course, welcome! *waves*
Sorry I’m getting a late start reading, I’m off to tell everybody, right after I read your amazing post. Thanks so much, Jacquie!
Hi Pamela! Sure, I’ll add you to my buddy list, and please do add me to yours;)
awesomeness
I printed out your handout and am going to use it with my NaNo story:) I haven’t written enough to even have the hero or villain yet, but maybe this will help me sit down and create them! I’ve always wanted to plot, and I know this workshop is going to help get me there. Here’s what I have so far:
Situation: Born with a special ability she was forced to keep hidden her entire life, Camille is now the only living person in her town. Unable to bear being alone any longer, she sets out to see what the rest of the world holds and who else might still be alive.
Character: Camille Lockwood
Objective: To find other living people, and to discover why she was spared when so many were not. Find her purpose in this new world.
I haven’t filled out Opponent or Disaster yet, but I’m working on it:)
Thanks, Jacquie! Anyone else want to show us what you have?
Great post! I totally needed this for NaNo. I’m savvyone on there BTW, anyone is welcome ot add me and I can add you! I printed out that handout, will come in very handy.
Hey Jacquie! Great beginning post on plotting. I totally agree that characters are imperative to plotting. Characters have goals and desires and those things definitely guide and push the plot along. Looking forward to more on the subject.
Hey Jacquie
Thanks for the cool post and the handout. I think it’s going to come in very handy with a short story I’m having trouble with.
D
Excellent summary of Swain, Jacquie. I agree 110% with you on his circuitous explanations. LOLLLLLLLLLL
And long time no chat! I’m certain I’m as busy as you are thought.
I’ll be back to see what else you’re going to share with us. Skhye
Thanks, everyone!
First of all about nano buddies: I have been fighting with nanowrimo.org all day long and don’t think I’ve managed to add anyone yet. Maybe in a few days things will slow down there, and the site will work better. Frustrating, though.
On the handout, yes, Swain really gave us a little gem there. And I totally LOVE one-stop shopping. So in one fell swoop, we have a structure to our story, a pitch, a back blurb, and a short synopsis. Works for me.
Jane, you did really great! Actually, you have it all in situation. We can break it up like this:
Situation: Born with a special ability she was forced to keep hidden her entire life,
Chracter: Camille is now the only living person in her town.
Objective: Unable to bear being alone any longer, she sets out to see what the rest of the world holds and who else might still be alive.
And there you go! All we need now is an opponent (usually the hero in romance–this doesn’t necessarily mean the villain), and a disaster.
So who is going to keep Camille from achieving her goal? And what is the major roadblock?
On my own story, I was in a total dither because I had an hour to write but no story came. So I decided to put my money where my mouth is and do this exercise. And guess what? I’m on my way. So here’s mine:
Situation: Faced with the destruction of the Chalice of Knowledge and Faith, and his own death
Character: Dragon-shifter Flint Long
Objective: Must find his true love and the keep the magic jewel away from the dragon hunters.
Opponent: A faery lady named Keerah wants him to find her magic jewel, and give her a baby besides
Disaster: But if he scares her, she won’t be his true love and once again he’ll be left alone. To die.
So now I’ll write the next scene, and after that I’ll do some character work. Because without depth of character, even in a humorous book, the story simply isn’t compelling.
Happy writing! I’ll check in later today.
Jacquie
Thanks, Jacquie! I’m getting the hang of it;)
And on to the character sheets to work on characters, right?
Your story sounds awesome! It’s amazing how one quick exercise can give us a story:)
Yep, then on to Character, which will be next week’s topic. The character forms always give me ideas as I fill them out, and the characters slowly reveal themselves to me.
Each stage is an exercise in discovery. I always thought the story is in my brain somewhere–these tools are here to coax it out.
I got to thinking–maybe we should do this again next October so we have our story prep done before nano starts.
Jacquie
I wrote this comment before I had my coffee this morning and forgot to post it! So yes, it’s out of order.
Thanks Jennifer and Mercedes. Pamela L., I love Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat. It’s really well written, and one thing about how-to-write books, they’re often dreadfully dull. But this book is informative and entertaining.
Thanks Gwen, Cinde, Cindy, and Danielle. I hope this gives you one more way to look at your story.
Skhye, where have you been, girl??? I hope your books are selling like hotcakes.
Will be back shortly after I have my coffee.
Jacquie
Great idea! That’d be very helpful. I wasn’t even thinking about doing NaNo until you asked me to be your writing buddy, then I was like, okay. I can do this;) I’m glad I decided to, because I’d forgotten how fun it is to just sit down and write.
So yes, next October, for sure! It’s good to plan ahead;)
I’ve had problems with NaNo’s site, too. Hopefully, they’ll reactivate the Authors search function and we can add people.
Hi Pam L! If you want to add me, visit my page at http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/440363 and just click on ‘add as buddy.’
Also, Pam is doing NaNo too; her page is http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/263202
Jacquie’s is http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/413959
Until they get the author search back up, this is the only way to add people. Soon, I hope!:)
Thanks!
Hi, Jane!
Added you, Pam, and Jacquie last night. Since the Author Search is still down, here’s my NaNo link:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/209363
Happy Writing!
Fabulous post, Jacquie, with excellent advice! Plotting is one of my weaker skills. I’m going to work on those key elements for my Nano story.
I think I have everyone added at the Nano site but the names don’t always appear. Frustrating!
This is excellent, Jacquie, and I can’t wait to see what else you have in store for us!
Thanks for posting the links, Jane. Now that I’m finally getting some writing buddies, I’d better get some words written!
I’m glad I helped Pamela. It’s just another way of looking at our story, and sometimes it helps find the one little thing that clears the way for us.
Good to see you here, Eilis! I loved your RWR article on snappy retorts.
Jacquie