Conflict Boxes

Scene Level Conflict Boxes

This month (March 2009) over on the Compuserve Books and Writers Forum in Writer's Exercises, we're talking about scene level Conflict Boxes. If you want to participate by posting an exercise and commenting on the work of others, hop on over there. Here is what we're working on:

One way to increase tension in a scene is to ensure there is an appropriate conflict lock between the scene protagonist and a scene antagonist, obstacle or opposing force. In other words, in every scene your protagonist should have a goal, and there should be some person or thing which is working in opposition to that goal.

Jennifer Crusie and Michael Hauge refer to this as a Conflict Box, and it looks something like this:

For the purposes of this discussion, let’s focus on scenes where there is a protagonist and a scene antagonist operating in conflict. Recognize that in some scenes it may be a non-human obstacle or opposing force, but let’s ignore those scenes for now. Also note that the scene antagonist may not be the same as your story antagonist. A scene antagonist may be your protagonist’s best friend, side kick, mentor, ally, etc… or a complete stranger. The scene antagonist is simply the person who is preventing your protagonist from meeting his or her immediate goal.

Tension in scenes is increased when there is a conflict lock between the protagonist and the antagonist – when the protagonist’s attempts to achieve his/her goal directly blocks the antagonists attempts to achieve his/her goal.

In the Protagonist's row, the conflict should be the ACTION the PROTAGONIST takes to block the antagonist. In the antagonist's row, the conflict should be the ACTION the ANTAGONIST takes to block the protagonist.

Using a story we all know (and a story level rather than a scene level conflict), in the first Indiana Jones movie, the conflict lock looks like this:

You could replace the word "Conflict" with the word "Action" to show the dynamic nature of the conflict box. Conflict occurs when two character's actions block the goals of the other.
Indiana Jones’ goal of obtaining the ark is in direct conflict with the Nazi’s goal of obtaining the ark. The actions of the protagonist block the antagonist from achieving his goal, and the actions of the antagonist block the protagonist from achieving his goal.
There are a number of things to keep in mind when determining if you have a conflict lock in your scene:

• Conflict locks are best used when the protagonist’s goals are external, concrete and specific. If your protagonist’s goal is internal, try to find a McGuffin, something physical, to stand in as the external symbol of the internal struggle. A concrete, external goal is something that the reader can visualize. It may stand-in for an inner emotion.
• The scene antagonist should also have a goal he/she is willing to fight for. In other words, the antagonist is not just there to block the protagonist, but he/she also has something he/she wants.
• The protagonist’s and antagonist’s goals must conflict. There is no obvious way for both to win. For one character to obtain their goal, the other character must loose. Their goals are mutually exclusive.
• What the antagonist is doing to obtain his goal is also what he is doing to block the protagonist. If the antagonist wins, the protagonist fails.
• The protagonist and antagonist do not have to have the same goal. For example, imagine there are two teenage siblings who share a car. The conflict lock might look like this:
  

• So, either both characters have the same goal (the ark), or they have different goals which are in direct opposition (both teens want the car).

Remember, in terms of storytelling, your protagonist has a goal in the story. Each scene in your story provides either progress or a setback. Your job as the writer is to set up barriers and obstacles, through the use of antagonists, to make your protagonist’s job harder. This adds tension to your story and your scenes.
Examples:As examples of conflict lock, let’s look at some scenes from fairy tales – since most people are familiar with these.

Example 1: Goldilocks and the Three BearsSet-up: After a vigorous walk, and a filling breakfast, Goldilocks decides to take a nap.

Analysis: Papa Bear prevents Goldilocks from meeting her immediate goal – getting a nap. Goldilocks prevents Papa Bear from his goal – keep his family safe by keeping strangers out of the house. Goldilocks cannot meet her goal of getting a nap if Papa Bear won’t let her stay and sleep.


Example 2: Hansel and Gretel
Set-up: Hansel and Gretel get lost in the woods. The children are hungry when they stumble upon the witch’s gingerbread house and begin to nibble.




Analysis: The witch prevents Hansel and Gretel from eating her candy house by locking them in a cage. Once locked in the cage, Hansel and Gretel have no immediate way to satisfy their hunger.

Example 3: Jack and the Beanstalk
Set-up: Jack finds some magic beans and climbs the resulting beanstalk to the giant’s home in the sky, where he steals various items of value in order to keep his mother out of poverty.

Analysis: Jacks wants to save his mother from poverty and keeps stealing from the giant. The giant wants to protect his valuable items, but Jack keeps outsmarting him. Jack only wins when the giant looses.
***

If you’d like to post a good example of a conflict lock, either from a book you’ve read or from a movie, feel free to post as a reply to this thread! If you disagree with something I've said above, let's discuss it!

2001: A Space Odyssey

Wow! Sorry for my long absence from blogging. I guess I'm either on or off.

My son was home sick today and so I decided to rent a classic - 2001: A Space Odyssey. We've talked about this movie in the past, and I thought it might be fun to watch. I was right, but certainly not in the way I expected.

I've gotten in the habit of studying the structure of movies as I watch them. It's so much easier to dissect a movie than it is a book, particularly movies I've seen before. My apologies in advance if 2001: A Space Odyssey is one of your sacred cows - you may want to stop reading now - but IMO, boy was this a good one to tear apart as an example of what NOT to do in storytelling.

The film opens with almost 5 minutes of blank screen with strange music in the background. No title screen. No opening pictures. Just blackness. Okay, it's a space movie. But 5 minutes?

Next, the film shows 20 minutes, TWENTY MINUTES (no exaggeration), of footage of men dressed up in gorilla suits and going about their typical day, until one day when a monolith appears in their neighborhood and suddenly one of them gets the great idea to use an animal bone as a weapon and promptly kills an enemy gorilla. This is progress.

Cut to the future. For another 20 minutes (NO LIE!) we see footage of special effect models - various space vehicles moving and rotating about in space, culminating with an extended scene of a pen floating about in space inside a space shuttle/airplane, while its owner SLEEPS! Riveting. Really. Even allowing for the fact that in the late 1960's, the idea of space travel was new and perhaps needed a bit more set-up than current times (for those who weren't Star Trek fans), twenty minutes was a bit much.

At this point, my 13-year-old son is about to crawl out of his skin, and I'm about ready to end my repeated assurances of "just wait, it gets better". Forty-five minutes into the film, we get our first dialogue. After a brief teleconference with his 5-year-old daughter (presumably to humanize our temporary hero - as nothing else relevant seems to come out of the discussion), our MC of the moment, Dr. Heyward Floyd, speaks to an assembly of scientists on the moon explaining in his monologue that an object estimated to be 4 million years old has been found buried on the moon. All go to investigate and are presumably killed, including the man who until now has been the main character. So much for humanizing him with the daughter. We never really had a chance to care about him as a character.

More long, drawn-out images and we eventually meet our dual heroes, and the infamous HAL. They are on a mission they know almost nothing about. Neither of them seem to have known Dr. Floyd and feel no sense of mission to solve the question of why he had to die. In fact, with the exception of the monolith tie-in, it could be an entirely different movie. Almost all the dialogue is contrived to tell the audience information that needs to be conveyed, rather than showing it in an interesting way. The dialogue is stilted - a third grader could probably be more creative. At this point, my daughter has returned from school and the two kids are rolling on the floor, laughing hysterically at the absurdity of it all. I'm wondering how the film ever became a classic, but keep saying - "Just wait... it'll all make sense in the end."

At no point is Dave (the remaining hero) ever angry at HAL for killing off the crew, nor is he nervous about his ability to succeed in disabling HAL, nor does he run into any real stumbling blocks - HAL is ineffectual at doing ANYTHING to even slow Dave down, and his pleading attempts (in monotone voice) of "Stop Dave. Stop Dave. Stop Dave. I'm afraid Dave. I'm afraid Dave. I'm afraid Dave. The world is getting dark Dave. My mind is fading Dave." had the kids laughing so hard it was hard to hear the next line of dialogue.

Next comes an extended psychedelic tunnel (perhaps another 10 minutes? I don't know the exact time. It did seem to go on and on. We were laughing too hard at this point for me to keep track). The special features included with the DVD stated they spent a lot of time with glue and solvents building the models. This explains a lot!

At this point I tell the kids, "the scene explaining it all is coming up soon now. You'll recognize it by the famous Space Odyssey music?" So we sit through weird, inexplicable scenes of Dave growing older and older in some sort of drug-induced dream, until he comes upon the monolith floating is space. Cue music.

The "famous" scene I remember that explains it all - it was all in my head. It's nowhere in the movie. I must have dreamed it. I can't even blame it on drugs - I was only 5 when the movie was released.

So, what does this movie have to teach about storytelling:

• When the writing books say "make the beginning exciting. Draw people into the story." they don't mean you need explosions or car chases on the first page, but 20 minutes of gorilla footage may be a bit much. Gorillas get a paragraph, maybe two. Check your opening pages - are they full of gorillas?
• Create 3-dimensional characters that your readers care about, doing things that matter to the story. A floating pen may be a cool feat in a 1968 film, but if it's not relevant to the story, nobody cares. Check your writing. Does it include beautifully written descriptions that don't really matter in the end? Either make them matter, or send them away.
• Show your readers what's important in the story. If a strange monolith has been uncovered, take us to the archaeological dig. Letting your character tell the story in monologue is heavy handed and uninteresting. Showing takes longer than telling, but if you cut out the gorillas, you'll find you have more time to engage your readers in the story!
• Give your characters a mission, something they want to accomplish, something they care about. Astronauts going about their daily business is not particularly exciting. Astronauts trying to solve the mystery of an unexplained monolith, and possibly save mankind - that matters. What is your MC character trying to accomplish? Is he or she simply moving through history, showing off the signs of the time, or is there a purpose to their actions?
• Provide obstacles, real obstacles, for your character. Being shut out of the spaceship is not particularly frightening if your first solution gets you back in. Shutting down the main computer hardly seems challenging if all that happens is some useless background prattle that hardly seems distracting. What's at risk once the computer is shut down? If he can't get home anyway, what is he accomplishing by shutting HAL down - everyone else is already dead? If it's a suicide mission, should we care if the remaining character lives or dies? How about for your characters? What choices must they make, and what are the consequences of those choices? What are they giving up to reach their ultimate goal - i.e., saving the world.
• What's it all about? Make the end matter. My mind has filled in all sorts of details for the end of this movie that just aren't there - vividly illustrated in my mind. Perhaps there was a "making of" show, or something similar, that provided the footage I so clearly remember. Perhaps the beauty of 2001: A Space Odyssey to it's fans is the ability to apply your own interpretation. In the story in my mind, new life, a new civilization, was saved from mankind to grown and prosper in its own way without interference. But in your story, make sure there is a payoff for the reader. Even if your message is big and important, give your reader closure on at least some piece of the story - a troubled character made whole again, some wrong righted, hope for the future. Don't leave the ending of your story untold.

If you have a different interpretation of 2001: A Space Odyssey, feel free to disagree here! If you have a "favorite" movie that has illustrated well writing principles (both good and bad), do share! I'm always looking for examples.

Get Writing!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Yes, I know I'm a few days late. But today is the day the kids went back to school, and so is the beginning of the new year for me.

I don't know anyone who doesn't start of the New Year with a few resolutions. Some people may keep them to themselves - out of fear of failure or some strange superstition that sharing the secret breaks the spell, but deep down somewhere, we all have them.

Along with exercise, eating better and keeping up with the laundry (all doomed to failure right out of the gate!), my plan is to move my writing back up to the top of my priority list and keep it there! Easy to say, possibly more difficult to stick with. As inspiration, I'm turning to my friend and author Vicki Pettersson for inspiration. For the past two years, Vicki's presentation "Get Over Yourself and Get Writing" at the Surrey International Writers' Conference has been an inspiration to a number of authors I know.

I originally included a summary of Vicki's talk in my Surrey notes, but in order to start my year off right, I'm going to go into more detail here, and get myself organized and inspired in the process.

If there was one message from Vicki's talk, it was this: "Be a mule. Do not quit. Do not stop. Do not ever give up." Her method: "How to work everyday." The outcome: "Finish the book."

First, she suggests identifying those pressures that make writing and finishing a book difficult. These come in two flavors - external and internal. For me, the list goes like this:

External Pressures:

1. Demands of home and family.
2. Volunteer commitments - Girl Scouts and Lego Robotics Team
3. Demands of contract work - it's only 10 or less hours a week, and provides a predictable paycheck, but it seems to take a chunk of time anyway.
4. Time commitment of web design business - I love doing this, but again, it seems to take a chunk of time.
5. Commitments to Compuserve Books and Writers' Forum - I love sharing what I've learned with others in the Writer's Exercises section, but Vicki would describe this as a "pseudo writing" activity. It doesn't really progress my own book.
6. Commitments to my critique group - on this front I have fallen sadly behind, but aim to get caught up and stay caught up. While this may be "pseudo writing" as well, it'll pay off in the feedback I'll get from my lovely partners in writing.

Internal Pressures:

1. That nagging feeling that most writers (even published) all seem to share - the feeling that I'm not really all that good. It's that internal editor sitting in my head blabbing away.
2. I'm unqualified to write on my subject area - can I really write about another culture in another time and do it reasonably accurately? Do I have the right to try and represent a people I don't belong to?
3. I enjoy writing, the process of writing, learning about writing and certainly the friends I've made. If I don't succeed, will I have wasted my time? What will people think about me?

If you're playing along, create your own list of internal and external pressures and put these aside for a moment.

Vicki's talk is full of quotables, like the following:

• Agents and editors are your allies.
• The work doesn't stop. Do the work. Take joy in it.
• 99% of the time you get in your own way.
• Doing it (writing) changes you
• Successful people do not let their failures define them
• Do something difficult while writing - it'll make the writing look easy

So, how do you commit yourself to getting this done? First, Vicki says you need hard number to keep yourself from lying to yourself. Set a goal. A NUMERIC GOAL. Time goals (e.g., write one hour a day) are a way to lie to yourself, and can be filled with pseudo writing activities (like reading blogs!). Make your goal something hard and fast.

• If you're writing - your goal should be a word count, or a page count
• If you're editing - your goal should be a page count goal
• If you're submitting - set goals for the number of submissions packets sent

And to help keep yourself honest, write it down. Vicki uses an Accountants Notebook. So that I can't procrastinate today by running out to the office supply store, I bought my book several months ago -right after Surrey. I blew the dust off today!

Vicki sets up several columns: Days of the month, Goal, Accomplished, Notes. You could use any sort of notebook, spreadsheet or charting system that works for you. The important things are this:

• Create a tangible way for charting progress
• Keep track of distractions and interruptions that keep you from meeting your goals - are there patterns? How can you remove these for the future?
• Be aware of pseudo writing activities. If you're not writing (on your wip), you're not writing.
• Look back over your notebook periodically. Revel in your successes. Analyze your failures for opportunites to do better in the future.

So, how do you meet your writing goals? Here's Vicki's words of advice:

• Be obsessive about creating and protecting time to write.
• Keep the promises you make to yourself. You wouldn't break promises and commitments made to coworkers. Give yourself the same respect.
• Use all the tools at your disposal.
• Be careful how you define yourself ("this is the way I write"). Be flexible.
• Start a journal. At the beginning of every writing session, write 3 pages in your own voice. This may lead into something for your WIP, but this isn't the point.
• Find writing methods and exercise that jump-start your creative juices. Vicki finds flow charts and mind mapping (sort of free-form brainstorming) helpful
• Study the methods of your favorite authors - google them, read interviews, discover everything you can about their writing process. Take what you think might work and try it for a month.
• Find accountability partners - this may be critique partners, writing friends, or writing mentors.
• Write everyday. E-V-E-R-Y-D-A-Y!
• Cut back on psuedo-writing activities (e.g., internet, blogs, forums)
• Take care of yourself- meditate, exercise, eat right

Although difficult to read, here is my entry into my writing journal. Day 1 (January 5), finish revisions to Chapter One and send to my critique group. (For those not aware, I spent a lot of time the last year - amid distractins - replotting my novel. For current purposes, I'm starting afresh!)

Oh, and remember that list of external and internal pressures from above? These are excuses. They don't have anything to do with the writing. Write them down, acknowledge them, then put them aside. Now, go write!

Surrey International Writers' Conference - Notes Posted

I posted my notes from the 2008 Surrey International Writers' Conference over on the Compuserve board. If you want to see them, navigate to the message here. You don't need to be a member to read, only to reply to a message.

One of the things that often happens at conferences is that speakers recommend various books, websites, blogs...that sort of thing. Below is a list of websites of interest to writers, recommended by Surrey presenters, in no particular order:

Queryshark.blogspot.com
A blog where Janet Reid reviews queries and makes recommendations. She’s got a huge backlog, so don’t expect to see yours anytime soon, but a great place to scroll through and see what works and what doesn’t.

Twitter.com
Social networking site that centers around updating and commenting on each other’s status.

http://www.free-expressions.com/
Don Maass’s seminars

Zoomii books
http://zoomii.com/
A virtual bookstore for Amazon books. Displays the books on bookshelves, categorized by genre and bestsellers. Click through to purchase through Amazon.

Sarah Lovett
http://sarahlovett.com/workshops/getwriting01.html
Articles about the writing process.

Ted.com
Video footage of great speakers talking about a variety of topic. There is a series on Master Storytellers. Recommended by Vicki Pettersson.

sfwriter.com
Rob Sawyer’s website. Look down sidebar for section on “How To Write” for his writing columns.

http://www.authorbuzz.com/
Author book promotion service.

http://mjroseblog.typepad.com/buzz_balls_hype/
Blog about book marketing

I'll post the short list of book recommendations from this year in the next day or so. Enjoy!

Surrey International Writers' Conference - Day Four

Ahhh...I've had my afternoon nap and now feel ready to face the rest of the day at the Surrey International Writers' Conference.

Reflect on This: At our forum party last night I was talking to Rachel Vater, agent extraordinaire. I asked her how many new clients she takes on each year. The answer, 8-10. 8-10 clients ONLY in a year. So, if a typical agent is getting 500 - 1,000 queries a month, 6,000 - 12,000 queries a year, and out of that hoard, they are only signing 8-10 new clients, imagine the chances of any ONE agent selecting your query, and then manuscript out of their pile. This just highlights that not only does your novel need to be well written, and you need to develop a really wonderful query letter, but that you need to really persevere when querying agents. In order to be selected by a particular agent, you need to be in their top 10 picks of the entire year. But if not this agent, then another. It may just be that they have their picks for the year.

Maybe this doesn't come as a revelation for anyone else, but for me it really highlighted just how competitive this business is.

How was the forum party? Wonderful, as always. Thank you to Kathy Chung and everyone else who helped organize the event. Diana Gabaldon read a selection from a story she and her son, Sam, are working on for an anthology. If the snippet is any indication, Sam's writing is as entertaining as his mother's and the anthology will be well worth buying. Michael Slade also read from his current book, Crucified. This is his take on a DaVinci Code style book, with puzzles and locked rooms. I loved hearing about his research, particularly on crucifixion. I won't describe it here. Let's just say Michael is a bit of a gory writer. Not my thing, but he is a riveting oral story teller and I always enjoy listening to him talk.

So, what did I learn today?

Donald Maass - Fear in Fiction:
This morning I went to Don Maass's Fear in Fiction session. Don's classes are wonderful because, no matter what his topic, he always makes you come up with new ideas to make your book stronger. Perhaps he ought to switch to weekly podcasts. Although his emphasis was on thriller and horror books - books that make you stay up all night with the lights on out of fear, the focus was really on creating believable villains. The thing that makes villains scary is that they are able to accomplish what we might otherwise consider unbelievable. Think your local shopping mall is safe from terrorists? Now, write a villain that eliminates all those improbabilities and makes the attack believable. THAT is what creates fear in fiction.

As always, Don offered an exercise. These are always more effective when your sitting in a room and have nothing else to do but sit there and think about his questions (he leaves VERY LARGE empty periods of time for you to think about what he's just asked). Even if you don't have an immediate answer, after about 5 or 10 minutes of sitting there thinking about his questions, something always comes (testament to the power of boring your muse into action). So, the exercise today is to answer the questions: What is the most unlikely or improbably event in your story? Why wouldn't this happen in the real world? What makes this event unbelievable? Now, ask yourself this another 20 times.

Once you have your list of 20 reasons why the event wouldn't happen, or your antagonist couldn't or wouldn't do what he did, start finding explanations or strategies to get around these obstacles.

Don's other advice: Make your monsters human. Villains who are so evil that they seem to be caricatures of evilness are not scary - they are unbelievable. Make them human - give them human wants, desires, opinions, daily activities and they seem more real and, ultimately, scarier.

Show and Tell, by Robert Sawyer
I attended this workshop not because "show, don't tell" is a new concept, but because the description included a promised discussion of when telling can be used effectively. Mr. Sawyer provided many good examples (an entire handout) of converting "telling" into "showing". Always good to get new ideas. Here is a short list (without discussion) of when telling can be effective:

• Very brief instances of conveying backstory
• Bridge over boring, no tension activities (a drive to the airport). Transitions.
• Descriptions to provide information the reader needs to know, now. For example, if we need to know the room has a fire-escape because we'll need it soon, then include it. Otherwise, there is no need to include it in a description of the room. Readers will provide their own details. Writer's don't need to stage the scenery.
• Move tension along in quicker scenes with a fast pace (showing takes longer than telling)
• Briefly set the scene

How do you convey important information - for example in a legal thriller, or medical thriller, or historical? You have an interesting character telling another character who needs to know! WHEN THEY NEED TO KNOW IT. (Where is that fire escape? It's right there! Now go!)

That's all for now. I'll post some interesting links provided by presenters, as well as book recommendations from presenters next week. In the meantime, stop reading blogs and go write!

Surrey International Writers' Conference - Day Three

Wow! I can't believe how fast this conference is flying. Only a half-day left and that's it. :(

While attending the sessions at Surrey International Writers' Conference is informative, probably the best part of the conference is talking with other writers, discussing what we're all writing, and reflecting on our own writing.

I started the morning with a session called The 90-minute Novel, by Sarah Lovett. I was only able to stay for about 45 minutes because I had my blue pencil, so I missed the guts of the presentation. Probably the most significant point Ms. Lovett made in the earlier portion of the session was that your MC should have a credo. Something they believe in absolutely. Something that defines them. What is your protagonist's credo?

Vicki Pettersson presented her famous from last year talk on "Get Over Yourself and Get Writing". One of the highlights (for me) of the conference, Vicki gives one a kick in the butt and makes you believe that you, too, can finish a novel, become a published novelist. I have pages and pages of notes from Vicki, but probably the most significant of what she said includes (1) set daily, weekly, monthly goals and then do whatever you have to do to make them happen. Life is not an excuse. This may be a word goal or a edit page goal, or whatever works for you. (2) Chart your progress. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. She uses and accounting notebook. (3) Beware of psuedo-writing activities (blogging, forum activity, attending conferences, reading about writing). The only thing that is really writing is WRITING! Vicki made a number of suggestions on what to try to keep yourself moving. The biggest point here was do what works for you, and have a box of tools you can fall back on when you get stuck.

The last session I attended was SIWC Idol. If you haven't heard about this, workshop participants can elect to turn in the first few pages of their manuscript (or you can just listen). The wonderful Jack Whyte read the pages (and who wouldn't love anything Jack read). This year 6 agents listened, and raised their hands at the point where they would stop reading if this was a submission (generally within the first 3 paragraphs). The strongest messages: Absolutely DO NOT start your story with someone waking up. Start with action and tension/conflict. Keep description to an absolute minimum.

Tonight is the Compuserve Forum Members party at Surrey and I expect it to be a late night. Two more sessions tomorrow and then....the Surrey International Writers' Conference is over for another year. Take care!

Surrey International Writers' Conference - Day Two

You are getting very sleepy....very sleepy...

Well, at least I am. It was a big, full day at the Surrey International Writers' Conference.

By all reports, the best session of the day was Donald Maass's Designing Venomous Villains. Unfortunately, I did not choose this class. Major boo's on me. I always regret skipping one of Don's sessions. He has a talent for really making your think about your own work. But I sometimes think "Oh, I've heard that person talk before. I should try someone new." Next year, I'll remember to stick with the tried and true.

The beautiful thing about Surrey is that if you find yourself in a session you don't really like, you can just move to a different session! People are coming and going all the time (to attend blue pencil and agent/editor appointments), so this shifting of locations can be done with some grace, although when half the attendees leave a half-hour into a presentation, the presenter may want to reconsider their syllabus.

The first session I attended was Bob Mayer's "Plot: The Events of Your Story". Bob Mayer is perhaps most famous for his collaborative writing with Jennifer Crusie (Don't Look Down, and Agnes and the Hit Man), but has an extensive list of books he's published under his penname Robert Doherty. I recently read "Lost Girls", one of his recent books, and thought it was great.

Anyway, I was disappointed that the class this year was identical (to the best of my memory) to a class on plotting he gave two years ago. There was too much material. He talks too fast. And it was difficult to really get anything out of it. However, he did remind me of The Conflict Box concept, which both he and Jenny Crusie talked about a few years ago, and I think also covered in their one year writing class online. The basic concept is that every scene must have conflict between a scene protagonist and a scene antagonist (may not be the overall story antagonist. For example, this could be the best friend!). The protagnoist and antagonist should have competing goals.

Bob used an example from Lost Girls to illustrate this concept. The protagonist's goal is to discover the kidnapper. The conflict is that the kidnapping continues. The antagonists goal is revenge. His conflict is that someone is trying to stop him.

The protagonists and antagonists goals should work against each other.

Try this on a scene or two. If the scene protagonist and antagonist's goals don't conflict, there may not be enough tension in your scene. I know I have some better examples of this at home. If anyone's interested, I can post them when I get back.

My second session was Dialogue by John Lescroart. Unfortunately, the bulk of this session was structured around audience questions and answers, which tend toward the more basic sorts of questions, so I left after about 1/2 hour and moved to a basic blogging 101 (too basic for me). THIS was the session I should have gone to see Donald Maass. The best tip on writing dialogue was "Skip right to the point." Don't waste a lot of time with "Hello, how are you" and the like.

If you're here on my blog, you likely know everything Darren Barefoot had to say in Blogging 101. However, he seemed a good a knowledgable speaker. Wish I had time tomorrow to attend his blogging and social networking talk tomorrow!

Third up was Characters in Action, by C.C. Humphreys. Lovely British accent! The major point of his talk was that characters have objectives and obstacles (see conflict box above - goal and conflict). This seems to be my theme for the day. Mr. Humphreys uses an acronym to demonstrate his principals: COMOCA - Characters, Objectives, Meeting, Obstacles, Creates, Action. He also mentioned "The Rule of Three" - obstacle, failure, obstacle, failure, obstacle, success. Don't make life too easy for your characters. And finally, he said "get in late and get out early." Try to cut out as much set up and closure as you can in your scenes. Get right to the point (where the scene really starts), and finish immediately when the conflict for that scene is resolved.

It's all about the conflict.

Sessions were followed by dinner, followed by a night owl session led by Michael Slade and a re-enactment of an Old Time Radio Show! Michael slade is a storyteller extraordinaire, and accompanied by a cast including Anne Perry, Diana Gabaldon, Jack Whyte, kc Dyer, and others, they re-enacted two famous radio plays. Very fun!

Too tired for the bar tonight. Last night in the bar we were joined by Rachel Vader (agent), and a crowd of members from the Compuserve Writer's Forum. Surrey is such a great place to meet people, talk about writing, and just absorb the atmosphere. Can't wait for tomorrow!

Surrey International Writers' Conference - Day One

It's day -1 at the Surrey International Writers' Conference. The regular conference does not start until tomorrow (I still have 10 minutes until tommorrow!), but today was Master's Classes. Since I come so far, I always try to attend both Master Class sessions. This year, I chose Janet Reid's Query Roulette and Don Maass's The Tornado Effect. Both good picks this year!

A Master's Class is 3 hours long (as opposesd to the 90 minute sessions on Friday and Saturday, and 75 minutes (if I remember right) on Sunday.

Janet Reid's class was outstanding. There were 18 registered participants, and we all had to submit query letters in advance. She went through each query letter in detail, on an overhead, pointing out what worked and what didn't. We then spent the last hour trying to fix what we'd written. I think if she'd rated them best to worst, mine might have been on the bottom. She probably spent the shortest time of all on it, and had neither anything outstandingly wonderful or horribly awful to say. It was uncommentable. Ah well... I did learn a lot anyway.

Janet had 6 tips for "A Good Query Letter"
(1) Short - 1 page is best. 2 pages is okay, but probably means there's something you could cut out. 250 words maximum.
(2) Readable (lot of white space. Spaces between paragraphs)
(3) Don't forget to include your contact information
(4) Tells, in 5 sentences, what the book is about (no more than 50 words)
(5) Include the word count (not the page count)
(6) Surprise the agent in a good way

For #4, the exercise we did was to write 5 sentences (no more than 50 words). Introduce the main character and setting (if necessary). Explain the problem and the choice(s) the main character must make - what's at stake. (PERIOD)

No set up. No backstory.

It's harder than it seems!

Donald Maass - the Tornado Effect
Donald's workshops are always one huge, 3 hour, brainstorming session. You come out with a whole fresh perspective on your story, your writing, or a particular scene or character. Whatever it is, he really makes you think!

The Tornado Effect focuses on how to make one scene really shine. It's difficult to summarize his 3-hour sessions in a few paragraphs here. Don mostly asks open ended questions that set your brain on fire. But at one point, he summarized The Tornado Effect as a way to make a scene more dramatic by having the scene event impact more than one character. Whatever it is that is happening, show how or why it's important to multiple characters, and how each of those characters is changed in some way at the end of the scene. As a way to get to this, re-write the scene from several different points of view.

Well, it's officially "tomorrow" (12:01 am), and time for my head to hit the pillow. It was a great day! I'll post some about Surrey social life tomorrow, along with anything interesting I pick up at the workshops!

Character Archetypes

As y'all know, I've been very intrigued with The Hero's Journey of late. Over on the Compuserve Books and Writer's forum, I've been running a Hero's Journey workshop for the past month. In July, we worked on Character Archetypes - looking at the roles your characters play in your story. Since it's been up for over a month there, I'm going to post it here (below) if anyone doesn't want to go over there to play.

Last week I posted a worksheet to help analyze movies, books and their structure. At many of the conferences I've attended, writer's a-many have said "deconstruct a book if you want to learn how to plot". Huh? says I. I tried this, several times, but ran out of steam. Part of the problem, I think, was I was trying to track too many different things at once - layers, character development, secondary story lines, etc... Starting with the Hero's Journey format has made it much easier for me to understand how many stories are put together. In a few weeks, I'll post the worksheet for story analysis that currently posted on the forum. Or you could hop over there and check it out under "Hero's Journey 2: Story Analysis" in the Writer's Exercises folder.

Character Archetypes:
(originally posted 7/2/2008 on Compuserve Books and Writer's Forum - Writer's Exercises)

Without the characters populating our stories, the stories themselves could not exist. Like the stages of The Hero’s Journey, archetypes do not define the characters who must appear in your story, but provide you with character masks or roles that appear repeatedly throughout world literature. Understanding these masks can help to strengthen your characters and give them additional purpose or attributes.

Some archetypes may be associated with a character throughout the story. Some characters may switch back and forth between different archetypes or roles as the story progresses. Christopher Vogler identified 7 archetypes common to The Hero’s Journey:
(1) Hero
(2) Herald
(3) Mentor
(4) Threshold Guardian
(5) Shadow
(6) Shapeshifter
(7) Trickster

Are these all the archetypes that exist? Certainly not! There are hundreds of different archetypes defined in an almost infinite number of books, websites and other sources. I’ve listed a few of these for your reference at the end of this message.

I'm going to use the archetypes described by Vogler to help you brainstorm some about the characters in your story. Remember, you don’t necessarily need to include all these archetypes, or include every aspect of every archetype described. Just use the descriptions and questions below to think about ways you might be able to make your characters stronger or more interesting.

Many of the brainstorming questions below may seem more plot than character related. They are there to help you determine which characters fit these roles through their action in the plot. Don’t get too hung up on answering all these questions today! You’ll see many of them again as we move through the stages of the journey.

You will be revisiting the characters, their roles, and the archetype characteristics they assume in various points of the story as we move through brainstorming story points using the stages of The Hero’s Journey. So don’t make yourself too crazy with this at this point. I guarantee you, it will change and change again over the next few weeks. However, it will be really helpful to begin to identify the role each of your main characters plays as you start to think about scenes and journey stages.

(1) Hero - Often (but not always) the protagonist of the story. Usually the most active person in the story, the Hero’s will and desire drives the story forward. The Hero is the one who learns or grows the most in the course of the story. The mark of a Hero is his or her willingness to sacrifice or give up something of value. During the course of the story, the Hero will (1) separate from the Ordinary World; (2) sacrifice himself for the service of the journey; (3) answer the challenge; (4) complete the quest; and (5) restore the Ordinary World’s balance.

• Who is the hero in your main storyline?
• How does this character change by the end of the story? What important lesson does the hero learn? What wisdom does she aquire?
• What actions does your hero take to move the story forward?
• What sacrifice does the hero make? What of value (including his/her life – real or symbolic) is the hero willing to give up in order to succeed on the journey?
• What universal drive is this character driven by: Desire to be loved? Understood? To succeed? Survive? Be free? Get revenge? Right wrongs? Seek self-expression?
• How are these drives expressed at the beginning of the story (Ordinary World)? How do they grow, change or get stronger as the story progresses?
• What does the Hero value most? What sacrifice would be most difficult for the Hero to make, but is most necessary for the success of the journey?
• What admirable qualities does the Hero have? What qualities will the reader identify with?
• How do conflicting traits help to define your hero (e.g., trust vs. suspicion, hope vs. despair, love vs. duty)?

(2) Herald – Heralds issue challenges and announce the coming of significant change. They get the story rolling. The Herald doesn’t necessarily need to be a person – it could be a dream, a book, a new idea, a storm, a telegram, a phone call, the start of a war, a drought or famine, an ad in the newspaper, the character’s inner voice.

• Who is the Herald in your story?
• How does your Hero become aware of the need for a journey? How does your Hero receive the Call to Adventure?
• What change does the Herald announce? What message starts the Hero on the journey?
• How does this message upset the equilibrium of the Ordinary World? How does this message make the Hero unable to return to his “old” life?
• How does your Hero react to the Herald’s message? How does the message transform the Hero?
• What is the Heralds motivation for calling the Hero to an adventure? What does the Herald get out of it?
• Does your Herald appear once in the story or at several points, each time announcing an upcoming change?
• Is the Herald a friend, foe, or neutral character? Villian or emissary?

(3) Mentor – Mentors have two main functions (1) training or teaching the Hero; and (2) giving gifts key to success in the journey. Gifts may include weapons, medicine, food, magic, important piece of information, or other items. The gifts may sometimes seem insignificant until later in the story. The Mentor’s goal is to get the hero past the stage of doubt and fear, and committed to the journey. The role or mask of the mentor may be worn by different characters at different points in the story, and may even be represented by the Hero’s personal code or a prop (e.g., book or other artifact) that guides the Hero.

• Who is the Mentor or Mentors in your story?
• What important lessons does the Mentor teach in order to prepare the Hero for the journey?
• Does your Mentor’s teaching style match any of these? Drill instructor? Squad leader? Sergeant? Old police officer? Aged warrier? Trail boss? Parent? Grandparent? Wise old man or woman? A fool? (or some other style?)
• What gifts does the Mentor give to the Hero to help him/her be successful? In what way are these gifts critical to the Hero’s success?
• If you have multiple Mentors, what unique skill, piece of wisdom or gift does each give?
• What does the Hero do to earn the gifts and wisdom from the Mentor? What sacrifice or commitment does the Hero give? What tests must be passed?
• How does the Mentor help motivate the Hero to commit to the journey?
• How does the Mentor test the Hero’s worthiness?
• How does the Mentor impart the Hero with courage?
• How does the Mentor motivate the Hero when he/she is refusing the Call to Adventure? How does the Mentor give the Hero a push?
• Is your Mentor genuinely interested in helping the Hero, or is the mask of the Mentor being used to hid an enemy?
• Does your mentor disappoint the Hero in any way?
• Why does the Mentor help your Hero? What does he or she hope to gain? What is their motivation?

(4) Threshold Guardian – The Threshold Guardian generally appears as the Hero attempts to Cross the First Threshold into the Special World of the journey. The Threshold Guardian protects the Special World and its secrets from the hero, and provides tests to prove the Hero’s commitment and worth. The Threshold Guardian is typically not the antagonist or enemy in the story, but may be a henchman, a neutral character or even a secret helper. May even be an ordinary obstacle – bad weather, bad luck, prejudice, oppression, or hostile people.

• Who is the Threshold Guardian in your story?
• How does the Threshold Guardian test the Hero’s resolve to continue on the journey? How many tests must the Hero pass?
• How do the Threshold Guardian’s test foreshadow difficulties the Hero will encounter in the Special World.
• How do the tests thrown at the Hero represent the Hero’s own internal demons? (neuroses, emotional scares, vices, dependencies, self-limitations)
• Why does the Threshold Guardian want to block the Hero? What do they hope to gain?
• What does your Hero do to overcome the Threshold Guardian? How is this determination tested?
• When faced with a Threshold Guardian, heroes may run, attack, craft a deceit, bribe or appease, make an ally, disguise themselves as the enemy, etc… What does your hero do?
• How does the Threshold Guardian respond?

(5) Shadow – Often times the shadow mask is worn by antagonists, villains and enemies, but it may also be worn by other characters. The character who wears this mast most often, and whose motivations are in direct conflict with the Hero’s is the villain. Shadows represent things the Hero dislikes and would like to eliminate – the dark side or suppressed monsters.

• Who are the characters in the story most set on blocking the Hero’s chosen course of action? (May be antagonists who disagree with the Hero’s path.)
• Which characters are determined to destroy the Hero and his or her cause? (Most likely the villain and his/her henchmen.)
• What dark characteristics do the shadow figures possess?
• How do the Shadow figures represent aspects the Hero dislikes about his/herself? The Hero’s dark secrets? Qualities the Hero has tried to eliminate in him/herself?
• Does the Shadow possess any positive qualities that the hero, for whatever reason, has rejected in him/herself?
• What redeeming qualities does the Shadow have?
• How does the Shadow challenge the hero?
• What makes this Shadow a worthy opponent? What unique qualities does the Shadow possess?
• How does the Shadow symbolize the Hero’s greatest fears and phobias?

(6) Shapeshifters - A character whose loyalty or sincerity, their role or personality, seem to change in significant ways throughout the story. Misleads the hero or keeps him/her guessing. Often represented by the opposite sex, a love interest. May be femme fatale/homes fatales. May also be a buddy or a magical figure.

• What character in your story is not always who they appear to be?
• How does this character’s loyalty or sincerity seem to change over time? How does this impact on the course of the Hero’s journey?
• How does the Shapeshifter add doubt and suspense to the story?
• How does the Shapeshifter keep the Hero off guard?
• Does the Hero ever wear this mask to confuse the antagonists or to get past an obstacle?
• How does the mentor’s use of this mask influence the story?
• Does the Shapeshifter’s changing nature serve as a catalyst for change in the hero?
• How does the Shapeshifter challenge the Hero (and the reader) to question their own beliefs and assumptions?
• In the end, how does the shapeshifter either lure the Hero to his doom or to ultimate success in the journey

(7) Trickster – Tricksters are agents of change. They point out both common bonds, and folly and hypocrisy by drawing attention to imbalance and absurdity. Often mischievous – clowns, comical sidekicks.

• Are there any characters in your story that create change by challenging the status quo?
• How does the Trickster create chaos in the Ordinary World?
• How does the Trickster call attention to the absurdity of the situation? Does your Trickster use word games, turns of phrase, humor, ridicule, or physical action to draw attention to the need for change?
• Does your Trickster provide any comic relief within your story? Does this humor keep things in proportion?
• Does your Trickster display cunning when facing a stronger or more powerful opponent?
  

(Note: although the research for the information above came from several sources including Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey, Christopher Vogler and Michael Hauge The Hero's 2 Journeys, and Joseph Campbell The Hero With 1,000 Faces, the question format is my own. Please credit me and link back to this blog - or the original Compuserve Post, if you care to use it - Jenny Graman Meyer (c) 2008.)

If you’re interested in learning more about various archetypes, here are some places to check:

Situational, Character and Symbolic Archetypes: http://taliessin.org/Archetypes.doc
Carol S. Pearson’s 12 Archetypes: http://www.herowithin.com/arch101.html
Dramatica Archetypes: http://www.dramatica.com/theory/theory_book/dtb_ch_6.html
Tarot Card Archetypes: www.juno-lucina.com/majorarcana.html

In Elizabeth Lyon’s “A Writer’s Guide to Fiction”, she suggests the following books:

• The Complete Writer’s Guide to Heroes and Heroines: Sixteen Master Archetypes, by Tami D. Dowden, Caro LaFever, and Sue Viders
• The Hero Within: Six Archetypes We Live By, by Carol S. Pearson
• Awakening the Heroes Within: Twelve Archetypes to Help Us Find Ourselves and Transform Our World, by Carol S. Pearson
• 45 Master Characters: Mythic Models for Creating Original Characters, by Victoria Lynn Schmidt
  

EXERCISE: After reading the description of the archetypes common in The Hero’s Journey, analyze the characters in your own story. Start with a list of your main characters.

• What roles do each of the main characters play?
• Can you add the characteristics of any of the archetypes to strengthen characters?
• Can any of the characters play multiple roles?
• Do you need to add any characters to provide critical functions within your story?
  

Note that you likely won’t be able to answer every question in the archetype descriptions above, nor should you try. And you may find that the answers to many of these questions are not immediately apparent, or that your answers evolve as you work through the stages of your story. That’s great. Our work over the next few months should be fluid, causing you to think, re-think, and revise your story as we go.

Crossing the First Threshold (Outlining)

So what does the "desk" of a compulsive outliner look like?

As part of my new resolve not to be distracted by e-mail, forums, blogs(!) and the like when I'm "working" on writing, I've taken over the guest bedroom. This is where I spend the first hour or so of most weekdays, meeting with my "mentors" and learning how to outline. If you dropped by today, here's what you'd see (left).

I like this picture because you can see the bright, sunny room I get to work in. (I hope my mom doesn't come to spend the night soon or she'll be on the couch!) But you don't really get the full impact of my outlining so far.

This pictures gives you a much better view of the appearance of my "desk". I curl up there in the upper left, pillow for a lap desk, reviewing all my notecards and scribbling down my ideas.

I'm using notecards. Lots and lots of notecards. I'm using green notecards for notes on The Writer's Journey, by Christopher Vogler (the book I just finished). Pink notecards for notes and ideas on character development. White notecards to write mini-synopses on different parts of the story as they occur to me, and yellow notecards to actually write line-for-scene cards. The notes I've taken from the book (see green notecards) I use to brainstorm ideas. If it's just story flow - what needs to happen, I write these on white index cards. If I actually get down to a real scene, with conflict and scene arc, I write this on a yellow card.

While it may seem my attempts to organize are getting in the way of progress, I'm proud to report that I have a fairly decent outline for about the first 6 of the 12 stages of The Hero's Journey. I've decided my heroine (a young gypsy woman, for anyone not familiar with my work in progress) has three approaches to reaching her goal, and conveniently, there is a male character/potential love interest who represents each of these approaches. Having these three different approaches gives me a lot of options when trying to fill in that "saggy middle" of the story.

But it also makes for a lot of ideas floating around, and I've found the notecards aren't always as visual as I need. So, I've stolen an idea from my friend Linda Gerber. I took three file folders, divided each in half, and then in four sections. On the left, I've written each stage of the journey, and scribble in the highlights or broad overall structure of the story (like the three approaches noted above). On the right, I stick tons of post-it notes with my ideas. This is very visual, as I can see everything at once, and I can move the post-its around as my ideas about the story develop. I'm still using the notecards too (there's not much room on those tiny post-its). It may seem complicated, but it's all working for me!

Somehow, at the end of all this, I may have a comprehensive strategy to recommend to anyone who, like me, can't seem to move forward in writing without an outline. For now, it's working for me, and it evolves as I go along. The real proof of concept will be a finished book!

Call to Adventure

I am jealous of organic writers. You know, those people who can sit down and write a story from beginning to end, seamlessly creating compelling story arcs and developing intriguing characters without breaking a sweat? Or those who can write disconnected scenes and chunks, and then connect these like some sort of invisible road map only they can see. I know the reality is different, even for these people, but it seems that there are a fair number of writers who are able to plot in their head, intuitively or otherwise, without once mapping out their story on paper. I suspect they drank less in college than I did.

When I first started working on my novel, I didn’t realize there was any other way to write a story except to just sit down and start writing it. Of course, there were a lot of things I didn’t realize about writing a novel back then, but we’re focusing on plotting here.

I’ve written quite a few scenes the organic way – just letting inspiration take me where it will. In my current novel, I probably have over 50,000 words written in scenes varying from ones I’m very proud of, to ones I wouldn’t read to my cat. The problem with this method, for me, is that without guidance my imagination tends to go off in many different directions, as if ten writers were all given a high level concept and sent out to write my novel. No matter how hard I try, the scenes I’ve written will never go together in the same book.

I need a better plan.

It’s not that I’ve wasted my time writing those 50,000 words. I’ve learned a lot about my characters and their culture and environment. The characters have evolved over time, maturing and becoming more like real people. Their lives have become more complicated. I can’t wait to tell their story.

So, uhm…how does one outline a novel?

Novelists on the whole seem to have grasped this concept intuitively. Books on novel writing tend to focus on craft, with maybe a chapter overview on the three and four act structure. There are very few novel writing books that deal with plot, structure, and how to create them. Even the writer’s conferences seem to avoid this topic. I’ve heard advice like "dissect a novel" or "use Excel" or "buy software like Scrivner or Liquid Story Binder." But none of this advice really addresses how one moves a plot from point A, where the story begins, to point Z, where the story ends.

(And for those of you who are organic writers, and are now saying "give it up!", bear with me. It’s not that I have no idea what my story is about. It’s just the scene to scene building, deciding between competing ideas part that gets me in a bind.)

But the screenwriters? They seem to have a passion for structure. Maybe it’s just because pulling apart the structure of a movie takes 2 hours, over and over a few times, until you’ve got each scene mapped out. Pulling apart the structure of a novel takes 10-15 hours, a few times, if you’re lucky and didn’t decide to analyze Outlander (Diana Gabaldon) or Pillars of the Earth (Ken Folliet) or Gone with the Wind (Margaret Mitchell).

To start my own journey of learning to plot and outline my novel, I asked around at the Compuserve Books and Writer’s forum, where most of my writing friends hang out. I received a number of recommendations: Create a Plot Clinic (Holly Lisle), The Hero’s Journey (Christopher Vogler), The Hero’s 2 Journeys (an audio seminar by Michael Hauge and Christopher Vogler), Story (Robert McKee), and Save the Cat! (Blake Snyder).

Note that all but Holly Lisle’s book have a primary audience of screenwriters. But the screenwriter seem to have a lot to say that makes sense.

So, I've set myself a task - to outline my novel. Like all good heroes, I've had a few false starts. I spent last summer looking at some software my stepfather (also an aspiring author) loaned me called The Writer's Dreamkit (more later, maybe). I also worked my way through Holly Lisle's Create a Plot Clinic. Then I reached my self-appointed end-date -- the end of summer, and discovered I had a lot of new scene ideas, and a new depth of understanding about my characters and story, but still no real structure.

Several months later and I'm at it again. And this time I'm sticking to it. I'd love to discuss my process and learnings with you - so stick around!