Current Project: CHASING RAINBOWS (novella)Status: Back to edits now that taxes are done!
As I've been editing a story that I drafted several years ago, I'm both chagrined at how little I knew and encouraged by how much I've learned and grown as a writer. This got me thinking about aha! moments. Those times when information makes sense AND you know you've made a big step forward in the craft of writing.
Here are some of those aha! moments for me:
--Point of view: I realized my story was stronger when I stayed in the point of view of one character for each scene. Or, if I switch POV in a scene, I do it only once. No more "head hopping" every other paragraph. However, I have to confess that love scenes may be the exception to this and I will sometimes switch POV more than once in a love scene.
--Showing not telling: For me, this went along with point of view. If I couldn't immediately tell whose point of view I was in, I was probably telling what was going on, NOT showing the action.
--Deep point of view: Was I just writing about a character or actually feeling the character's terror/joy/bitterness? (This may not actually count as an aha moment, as I still have to watch for this in edits.)
--Conflict: I didn't want my hero and heroine to suffer. However, a story without conflict made a very short book. Thanks to a presenter at a workshop, I learned that conflict comes much easier if the hero and heroine are in conflicting roles (fireman vs. arsonist, land developer vs. preservationist, cop vs. thief, etc.).
--Character arc: To make an interesting story, the hero and heroine need to grow and change. I finally came up with an easy way to chart their growth. If there are ten chapters, I brainstorm ten steps for the hero to change. If there are fifteen chapters, they get fifteen steps, etc. So their growth continues over the course of the story.
--Goals and motivation: Give the hero a goal: what does he want more than anything and why does he want it? Make the "why" important, such as a loved one's life is at stake. Then put bigger and bigger roadblocks in his way so he can't reach this goal. To ramp up the conflict, give the heroine a goal that is in opposition to the hero's goal. (Hero wants to build new condos so older people on fixed incomes like his mother will have a safe place to live. However, condemning this land to build new will leave the heroine's aunt homeless.) I think this came from the same presenter who suggested putting the hero and heroine in opposing roles.
Plotting: Invest in an easel pad and every color highlighter that the office supply store has to offer. Then use scene sheets to plot each scene of the story, color coordinating the character arc of each major character as well as the development of each plot and subplot. (Not for everyone!)
Black moment: This one finally came together at a Story Magic presentation that Karen did. As the end of the story nears, make it look like there's no way the hero and heroine are going to reach the goals they had at the beginning of the story. This is a great time to give the hero/heroine that last little nudge of realization that completes their character arc so they can resolve the black moment or work together to move past what could have been a disaster.
Please share your aha! moments. Do you remember what information triggered those realizations? Did this change the way you write?
5 comments:
Fun post, Genene, but really???? you have a every color of highlighter and write scene sheets??? I would completely lose interest in my story if I plotted it that much. LOL
As for aha moments- I can't remember them but I've experienced at least one at every conference I've ever attended and lately while giving workshops I've experienced it with questions that are asked of me or ways others attack their writing problems.
The latest aha was at the critique workshop this past Saturday and someone commented on a word in the piece I brought. They said the word wouldn't be used then. All along I thought it was used by less literate people, but I looked it up in the entomology dictionary and it wasn't around until the early 1900's. So I had a very aha moment with that and I now look up many more words that I took for granted as being around due to their simplicity.
Hey, Paty! I may not have EVERY color of highlighter, but I do have most of them. LOL! That's one of the areas where my love of graphic design meets my love of writing.
You know, it's interesting that many writers who don't plot much say that plotting makes them lose interest in their story. For me, plotting actually frees me to enjoy writing. To use the road map analogy, if I know the route I'm taking from point A to point B, I can enjoy the scenery and explore any surprises along the way. It's that way with my writing also. Knowing what I want to accomplish in each scene frees me to dig deeper into my characters and add texture to setting without losing track of the main plot. We've touched on this a lot in this blog but I still find it fascinating: works for one writer will drive another writer crazy. Love it!
I hadn't thought about learning while giving workshops--perhaps because I haven't given that many of them--but of course you're right. Any time there are a group of writers in the same room, someone is going to have a nugget of wisdom that resonates with you.
Your experience with when simple words came into usage is one of the things that keeps me from writing historicals. Accuracy of the time period! But there are some words that I think are more modern and have been in use for decades. I can see becoming fascinated with an entomology dictionary and never getting around to writing the story. :)
Genene, this is a slow week for blog responses!
And to add to it, I have had few aha moments that I recall. The Michael Hague workshop really got through to me in Dallas -- the whole thing on character and character arc resounded that year and the two books that were being plotted at that time went on to get good reviews and mean a lot to me.
Generally speaking, I work on gut feelings. I don't plot to black moments and all that, I'm not even positive where they are supposed to show up. I am not proud of this or suggesting it as a good way to write, it's just the way I write. I seem to have an internal story arc and I have learned to trust it and not to over think it But that's just me and is one of the major reasons I don't do workshops on how to do things...I'm not entirely sure how you do things.
I love the image of you at you easel with your twenty colored pens and graphs and arcs. I love the whole idea of it and would gladly buy every single item and then have no idea how to use them.
Ack!
Ack! Genene, I cringe at all those highlighters!
Actually, I had to speak at my daughter's class about writing and I took the kids through using a plotting board and we plotted out the movie Shrek. They all loved it, and I too got a lot of out it. I used to use plotting boards when I was first starting out, but I'm more linear than visual so stopped. But looking at the method again, I see how helpful it can be. Definitely a few aha! moments there for me.
Hi, Alice!
Slow worked out good for me as we got a drop box yesterday to get rid of all the accumulated remodeling garbage in our back yard. Hooray! Well, half a hooray--we're still putting "stuff" in. Feels so good to clean out the old garbage. You will probably see a blog about that one of these days. So be warned!
For you and Eli and Paty who cringe at the thought of all those colored highlighters--good for you! I count myself among those who are still fascinated at the different ways we get stories on paper (or in the computer). Different methods or no method at all, yet we tell stories. I love it!
I am amazed at all of you who "just write" without plotting. I've tried that and ended up with 600 pages of a tangled maze.
But color-coded plotting gives me a reason to buy all those pretty colored markers and put them to good use. LOL!
Eli, very cool that you talked to your daughter's class about writing. Shrek is a well written movie. In fact, I've seen quite a few kids' movies that were well-written. All the pieces that make a good story are there and solid. Hmm...think I need to review those again!
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