WORDSMITHING 101 ~ Part Four: Plot

You know what it's like when you have a great idea for a new book. It's exciting! You have a scene, characters, some dialogue. You can't wait, and have to begin writing, because all this stuff is inside you. You want to see it come alive on the page.
So, you get a chapter down. You have a few more characters to add. Scene upon scene evolves. Then, before you know it, you have another chapter, and things are beginning to take shape, and you think this might just work. And then you get a few more chapters and you come to a screeching halt because you have hit a wall.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who has done this. I get into writing a new book, and the it's like being inside a corn maze. I don't know which way I'm going once I get inside, and sometimes, I come to a dead end and have to go back!
You're asking yourself: What do I want to happen, and what do I need to do to get from one end of this story to the very end? How can I write all that—60K to 80K words, or more—and come up with all the middle stuff and make it all work toward a climax, and then that good ending I know I want to write?
Well, plotting. Of course!
But HOW do you plot a whole book?
Good question.
When I first started out—this was back in high school and college—I just kept on writing and writing. My novels just were going on and on. Maybe there were some high climax parts, romance, etc. But I know I had no idea about plot. I call these my beginner novels. Practice. Boy, did I do a lot of practicing.
The plot of a book is much different from a short story. You have all these sub-plots going, maybe a romantic sub-plot (sometimes called threads), too. How do you mix it all in there and keep the story knitted together? You have to consider the genre as well, because some restrict you from doing certain things. That's why I like urban fantasy. I can do it my way, pretty much.
The basic plot is like a weird looking M with an extension (I had a drawing, but it didn't go through, unfortunately)
Your beginning (first ¼ of the book), should introduce characters and a situation, which is compelling enough, that it will carry your story to the end. You want to start out with some excitement, of course, start out with a bang, but it can't out shoot the climax, because it's up there (notice that the climax is at the very top. Think of these peeks in the plot as you would a mountain range with peeks and valleys. The highest peek is your climax. You need to begin to build tension, holding the reader with all the threads up until the climax, you may have several threads, but not too many for your reader—or you—to keep up with.
Your hero may have to try and resolve a big problem almost right away, complications set in—your character is drawn off what they need to do to take care of this other thing, which seems insurmountable, and your readers have to be allowed to pause and wonder how she will get out of this, or what she will do.
This is called a cliffhanger. To create a cliffhanger you need to ask yourself what is the worst thing that could happen here? And have some way of resolving it, but not let your readers see how, and yet do so believably. Conflict isn't easy to put on your characters, the ones you really like, but you need to do it to keep the tension tight, and to show how your character reacts, and changes, or grows, emotionally because of it.
The middle of the book needs to have more cliffhangers, and tension in order to keep the reader interested. If there is a romantic thread, milk it until there is no way to keep the two apart (Michelle Hauf and Jeaniene Frost authors of romance/paranormal romance). If the romance is not an important equation to your novel—just a side dish—you need to bring in something that fits your genre, like a mystery writer needs to build up to her climax (Janet Evanovich). But you don't want to let your readers down in the middle either. So what do you do? What you want is to bring in some dark moment. A different mystery or problem that your character has to solve (J.K. Rowling). But even once she/he solves it—if she solves it—she finds that either doing so creates more problems, or something else happens as a result (Charlaine Harris).
Brainstorm the cliffhangers first, see if they'll work. If they don't you'll think of a better one, I assure you. Keep a notebook handy, by the bed, or somewhere you know you can get to it in the middle of the night—because believe me, as soon as your mind relaxes, you turn out the light, that's when inspiration kicks in.
And notice that the resolution is not very long. One to two chapters at the most, or have a epilogue. Your climax has happened, and now you need to have the bad guy pay, or in some cases, get away, but thwarted, and the rest of your characters lick their wounds and tie up loose ends.
To help you plot your story:
On a piece of large paper—if you can get a roll of newsprint, that is best—draw the plot line in a thick marker and then either write on this paper, or on separate note cards, all the different scenes you have in mind and either pin or tacky-glue them to areas along the plot lines. This will help you see where you are going with your plot. I'm a visual person and have made this plot line permanently on a large sheet of heavy newsprint I got from a printing company, and tacked it onto a large sheet of blue insulating board—tacks go in easily.
If you need more help with plotting I highly recommend “Plot Whisperer” http://plotwhisperer.blogspot.com Her site is devoted primarily on plotting the novel. She even has informative videos, and eBooks, etc. that you can find through her site.

WORDSMITHING 101 - Part One The Connective Writing Spirit

As writers we stand alone in that we are probably some of the few people who can stand our own company—for hours at a time. If asked the question: “If you were to be stuck on an island for a year with only one other person, dead, alive or imagined, who would it be?” A lot of us would most likely choose a character from one of our books, or another person's book, and think, “I'll get that novel finished finally.”

We are drawn to places like Staples, Office Max, or the office supply aisle in any store, to brows the pens, paper, notebooks, thinking of ways to use them. We all have our favorite color pens, paper, and brands.

If we're really into having a little fun, we're most likely to be found at a bookstore, drinking a chi latte, or mocha caramel-something-or-other. We may have our laptops with us (if we own one), and at some point will brows the magazines for the latest writing news, and then a good deal of time will be spent in our favorite genre section checking out what our favorite authors are up to, and see who is new, dreaming of our books appearing on the shelves right next to one of these authors.

If we get a call from a friend, or relative who we have not seen in a while, and they ask if we want to go to lunch, and we're in the middle of the scene, we're split between our loyalty to the page, and that friend/relative. Many times more than not, we usually decline, make up an excuse (because who would believe we'd spend so much time just writing, and that this is a viable excuse—unless, of course you are considered a “professional” writer and you've been making money this way?)

Yes, we might be the few people on the planet who are very comfortable with being alone with our thoughts. Because, lets face it, our mind is ripe with a fantasy going on all the frigging time, day and night. Speaking of which, we suffer from lack of sleep because we may have to get up in the middle of the night (yeah, when every one's asleep and can't bother us), to get to the computer and work on that scene or dialogue that just won't shut up, or that you know if you don't get it down, it might never come back. And when you get finished with it and think, omg, is this the best thing I've ever written or what???

We give ourselves restraints on our lives, knowing that if we don't plant our butt into the chair before the computer screen, the job ain't gonna get done. We need time, a quiet place, and as few, to no distractions as we can possibly have. The island for a year starts to look real good when job, kids and a few other things begin to push us around, keeps us from our “happy place”.

We are of one spirit. I know all of you out there have these qualities. I'm so happy to have you, whoever you are, in my life, and hope to gain new writer friends, and eventually readers as well, to join me.

I plan on continuing this WORDSMITHING 101, on a weekly basis, give tips, ideas—many of them basics for beginning writers, and maybe a few seasoned writers who tend to forget some of the basics, or for those of you who need a little boost in moral. We're all made of the same stuff. We are creative people, nourished by the smallest things, like a song, something we see, or experience. We need to connect with one another, to know that we are not alone!

So, if you read this today, and have a like-spirit, and enjoyed this entry, return here next Monday. I plan on doing a piece on words, and helping you create your own collection of words, so that you will become a better wordsmith. Future Wordsmithing issues will cover "creating suspense", dialogue basics, and more when I come up with them.

Minor Characters Have Lives Too

Jason Stackhouse is a minor character, and yet is developed well in both the HBO series, "True Blood", and in Charlaine Harris' books.

Minor characters. Every book has them. They need to live and breath in the reality of the world you have created. They need to have opinions, needs, personalities, ups and downs in life. And, if they do have a shift in their emotional development, what will it be? It must go from one thing to another, from bad to better, or from good to bad. It could be a flaw in their make up, and they strive to change it, or in the way things develop around them, there can be no other way that they can't change to some degree by it.

Maybe someone dies, someone they love. That would have an effect on them emotionally.

Also, if this character has some influence on the main characters, is a relative, perhaps, or maybe they are involved in the resolution some how, and what they do, or how they react to one minor thing, brings about the major thing/change.

So the big question of this post is:
Do you know what makes your minor characters tick? Why are they there, in a scene? Could you do more to turn them into three-dimensional figures? Have them speak a little differently. Not everyone speaks exactly the same. Some people like to repeat pet words, like “absolutely”, or when they greet someone, “Hello, there”, or “How's it going?” Some men might say the other person's name first in a greeting: “Chet, how's it going?” and a nod.

Do they have a quirk? A tick? Some characteristic, maybe in what they wear, or refuses to wear. I know of one college student who I worked with, that no matter how cold it got, he always wore the baggy shorts, I don't care if it was 20 below, he always wore them like he was damned to prove he was impervious to the cold.

Go ahead, use people you know—even barely know—to help you create a memorable character with some aspect of what they look like, or how they act, how they talk. Mix and match, too, if you need to in order to keep their identity a secret. And it's okay to use a character in a movie, as long as it isn't someone too well known, and you aren't encroaching on copyrighted material.

Developing your minor characters may not seem an important, but you are building a reality, and your cast of characters need to have certain qualities to help a scene feel real, or keep it from becoming bland. You don't want your readers to become bored with a scene, so you may need some flamboyant character who's either a little off, colorful, talks nasty, or more colorful, tells jokes, whatever. You know that you have people around you who are like this, so, next time you're with co-workers, relatives, friends, make note in your head how they act, what they wear, or how they wear it, and how they speak, or things they like or dislike.

As a final note, if you are writing a series, you may want to bring this character into the next book a little more, and so making them stand out, lovable, or however you want them, you need to introduce them in the best possible way so that they are memorable. There may be something about him/her that no one knows about who can come into play, or be of some vital importance down the road. Developing this minor character may become vital when you need an ace up the sleeve, and you've run out of heroes who can come to the rescue. Or, someone who might become your next villain.

To sum up, pay attention to your minor character's traits, if they need to be fleshed out in your notebook, do it. Even though you may only have him/her minimally in the first story, you may want to use them for another book. So keep your notebook, and add to it as you need/think of things.

Just like movies, you need to keep that character just on the edge, people surrounding your main characters play a role, even if its to build on a scene. They need the personality, reasons to do whatever they are there to do.

Building a World for Fantasy

You know by my post yesterday that I've just gotten ideas for a brand new book. And being that this book will take place in another world almost exclusively, I know that I will have to take time to create that new world.

Those of you who write fantasy know that you need to know your character's world very intimately before you get too far down the road with it. If you write science fiction, especially, you have to do the homework and work on every little aspect of that world.

With me so far?

My world has a name, I call it Darkland. I have a few characters and I know where they originated from, and I'm working out why they came to be where they are, and what they are. I've decided that there will be no sun. But there will be moons. Their intelligence is extraordinary and they are highly magical, as well as the majority are vampires. The vampires are the higher echelon of other beings. But there are different kinds of vampires. They don't all need blood to survive.
Demons, werewolves and humans also make up a portion of their population.

Now you might just be posed with this very delema yourself, one day, so how does it all work and where do you start? Rome, they say, wasn't built in a day!

It would be helpful that you have some sort of reference book. Mine is "The Writer's Complete Fantasy Reference" from Writer's Digest. This is a necessary tool to help you get the basics down, help fill in some of the gaps, and you won't have to take repeated trips to the library, unless you need something more specific. But we'll do the very basics here.

So, this afternoon I wrote on note cards the basic things I need to know about this world.

Social Order (Upper, middle, lower classes)
Economy (money, trades etc.)
Military/Police (as well as judicial system)
Government (Feudalism, manorialism [medieval Europe], religious order? Or something else?)
Religion
Architecture/Art, etc.
Clothing/style (what do they wear is important! How/where do they get the materials to make clothing)
Energy source (electricity? or something else?)
Food (what do they eat, if there is no sunlight?)
Light (If there is not sunlight, then there must be moons for light, but if there is no electricity, could there be something else? Like some sort of glowing animal, bird or bug?)

So, you see there is a lot to think about if you must create a whole new world, should you not be using Mother Earth. Even if you are, and the story takes place in a different time period, you must know what that time period used for each of these things.

Did I miss anything?

One Chapter Challenge

I belong to several groups over at Writer's Digest.
Today I thought I would check in and see what's going on.
Well EJ Wesley, who is site manager of One Chapter Challange a Week suggested we blog about our experiences doing the one-chapter-a-week experience.

I've yet to find a partner. So, if you're out there, you like what you see, let me know you'd like to partner with me. I've already gotten my first draft finished, save for some edits, which I'm doing now. This is a second book, so if that might put you off, fine. But I'm waiting on an editor for the first book, so I don't know if I want to go to all the trouble of having someone read/edit it, if an editor is going to be doing this anyway.

However, I am posting my chapters over on my sister blog Lorelei's Archives.
The first book's title is Vampire Ascending this second book is Vampire's Trill.

The description of Vampire Ascending is on my side page here--whoever might be interested in the story. I could offer a synopsis if that would help get you up to speed?

Anyway, I've just placed my blog site down on this today. Hope to hear from someone soon who is into fantasy of this type.

The Plot Thickens

I used to go to a writing critique class where the teacher liked to twist this one saying to: "The plot sickens" because he wrote horror. He had a twisted sense of humor.

But whatever way you want to say it, the plot must do something to keep reader's nose in your book. If you see that something isn't working in your plot, and can't quite figure out why, I think this site might help you out.

I visited a blog by Martha Alderson, called "The Plot Whisperer for writers" plotwhisperer.blogspot.com last night. I found it very helpful. This isn't to say I don't have lots of other plot helping devices, but I have to say this one had some good visual templates. I joined the E-zine, because this author had some really good blogs on her site, and I don't mind admitting, I can always use an expert's advice.

I like her template for the plot planner--showing the "End of the Beginning" (first quarter of the book), then the line angles up to the "Crisis" at midway in the book, then you have a lull, less action, some more character development and information which draws the main character into the "Climax" of the book, then you have the "Resolution" at the end.

It's good to have visuals like this. There are different thoughts on this sort of plotting steps. But everyone agrees the first portion of the book is 1/4 of the book, the middle is 1/2, and the end is 1/4. The Crises and Climax pull the book along to the end.

I'm going to draw this on a sheet of white printing paper we got from a local printing company that comes on rolls. I like using this paper because I can make it as long as I want, when I'm done I can toss it.

To go and check this out the link is: http://www.blockbusterplots.com/resc/PP.himl

Alderson has many other templates there as well. And she has a Test to see if you lean toward character-driven plots,or action-driven plots, and if you are lean in one of those areas she gives clues as to how to work on it. She has books and DVD's for sale to help you if you're new at this plotting stuff, or just can't get the hang of it.

I'm glad I finally went to her site. Go check it out if only for good solid advice on plotting.

May Issue of Writer's Digest just came!!!

I knew I had been waiting an awful long time for my Writer's Digest. I thought it should have come sooner than this, but I got it today.

I'm gonna do a spoiler, so if you haven't gotten yours yet . . . look away. Or read on (:

It has 101 BEST WEBSITES FOR WRITERS, in this one, and I always look forward to see what they have in there. This year it's a pretty good one. They've begun separating them into categories like this year "Writing Advice" is there with Grammar Blog, and Predators & Editors. There's General Resources, Online Writing Communities--a number of these I know about or have been on. Agents, Publishing/Marketing Resources, and so on.

Usually I thumb through this magazine to see what there is inside before I actually do any in-depth reading. The WORKBOOK is what I hit first.

Ladies and gentlemen, writers of every genre should get something out of this section of WD. This one has Genre Fiction--4 story structures for Sci-fi, Fantasy & More.

There is also 5 Tips for Creating Characters for Kids--Hey, there you go, for those of you who are working on children's books.

Ooo, Here is one I'd read: 3 Techniques for Crafting Your Villain! And they've got a worksheet here. I'm sure they have one on-line, but my computer has been shuffling things, and deleting some things, so I haven't had anything from them lately. I may have to go and re-sign up.

Well, that's my post for today.

Happy writing!