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Writing (fiction)
Instead of cluttering up the NaNo threads, I thought I'd start a new one for general posts and questions and news and advice and chat about writing fiction.
To kick it off, to help anyone unsure about what should go into a novel, or where to put what, I thought I'd share a great checklist from storyfix.com posted today. The idea is this: if you can answer all these questions BEFORE you begin writing, the first draft will fly by and be far better than if you just aim to write whatever comes into your head. A bit of jargoneering clearing: first plot point = the event that kicks off the "hero's journey" and the second plot point is the "final twist" where the hero understands the full picture and the story enters its final stage.
To kick it off, to help anyone unsure about what should go into a novel, or where to put what, I thought I'd share a great checklist from storyfix.com posted today. The idea is this: if you can answer all these questions BEFORE you begin writing, the first draft will fly by and be far better than if you just aim to write whatever comes into your head. A bit of jargoneering clearing: first plot point = the event that kicks off the "hero's journey" and the second plot point is the "final twist" where the hero understands the full picture and the story enters its final stage.
What is the conceptual hook/appeal of your story?
What is the theme(s) of your story?
How does your story open? Is there an immediate hook? And then…
* what is the hero doing in their life before the first plot point?
* what stakes are established prior to the first plot point?
* what is your character’s backstory?
* what inner demons show up here that will come to bear on the hero later in the story?
* what is foreshadowed prior to the first plot point?
What is the first plot point in your story?
* is it located properly within the story sequence?
* how does it change the hero’s agenda going forward?
* what is the nature of the hero’s new need/quest?
* what is at stake relative to meeting that need?
* what opposes the hero in meeting that need?
* what does the antagonistic force have at stake?
* why will the reader empathize with the hero at this point?
* how does the hero respond to the antagonistic force?
What is the mid-point contextual shift/twist in your story?
* how does it part the curtain of superior knowledge…
* … for the hero?… and/or, for the reader?
* how does this shift the context of the story?
* how does this pump up dramatic tension and pace?
How does your hero begin to successfully attack their need/quest?
* how does the antagonistic force respond to this attack?
* how do the hero’s inner demons come to bear on this attack?
What is the all-is-lost lull just before the second plot point?
What is the second plot point in your story?
* how does this change or affect the hero’s proactive role?
How is your hero the primary catalyst for the successful resolution of the central problem or issue in this story?
* how does it meet the hero’s need and fulfill the quest?
* how does the hero demonstrate the conquering of inner demons?
* how are the stakes of the story paid off?
* what will be the reader’s emotional experience as the story concludes?
Comments
What is the conceptual hook/appeal of your story? We are all batteries.
What is the theme(s) of your story? Among others; guns are fucking cool.
How does your story open? Is there an immediate hook? A chase across the rooftops and leather clad kickassery.
* what is the hero doing in their life before the first plot point? Office worker.
* what stakes are established prior to the first plot point? Has a safe existence.
* what is your character’s backstory? Spends his nights hacking.
* what inner demons show up here that will come to bear on the hero later in the story? Scared of heights. A bit lonely too.
* what is foreshadowed prior to the first plot point? Mouth sealed shut in the "Reality isn't what I thought" kind of way.
What is the first plot point in your story? Swallows the pill. Everything changes.
* is it located properly within the story sequence? Yes.
* how does it change the hero’s agenda going forward? Finds out reality is different than he thought.
* what is the nature of the hero’s new need/quest? Needs to find out if he is who Morpheus hopes.
* what is at stake relative to meeting that need? Survival of Zion.
* what opposes the hero in meeting that need? Tracked by agents who want to find Morpheus.
* what does the antagonistic force have at stake? Wants to get into Zion.
* why will the reader empathize with the hero at this point? Yes, we're all office workers who want to believe there is more meaning in the world.
* how does the hero respond to the antagonistic force? Learns fucking kung fu.
What is the mid-point contextual shift/twist in your story? Cypher's meeting with Agent Smith.
* how does it part the curtain of superior knowledge… we now know there is a double agent, and Morpheus is in danger.
* … for the hero?… and/or, for the reader? Neo doesn't know. We do.
* how does this shift the context of the story? Morpheus is now the main prize for the agents, but we know Neo will be trouble for them.
* how does this pump up dramatic tension and pace? In so many good ways.
How does your hero begin to successfully attack their need/quest? Guns. Lots of guns.
* how does the antagonistic force respond to this attack? Agents start jumping into any human avatar.
* how do the hero’s inner demons come to bear on this attack?
What is the all-is-lost lull just before the second plot point? A talk with Morpheus about how humans are a virus.
What is the second plot point in your story? Neo says "There is no spoon" and shoots the top of the lift.
* how does this change or affect the hero’s proactive role? He's worked out how to control the matrix.
How is your hero the primary catalyst for the successful resolution of the central problem or issue in this story? From here on in it is his control of the matrix that lets him defeat the Agents.
* how does it meet the hero’s need and fulfill the quest? Yes. He has found his identity, saved Morpheus, and got the agents on the run.
* how does the hero demonstrate the conquering of inner demons? He is certainly no longer afraid of heights.
* how are the stakes of the story paid off? Zion is safe. Neo gets the girl too.
* what will be the reader’s emotional experience as the story concludes? Exuberance, and a nervousness about the reality of the universe.
Once I made the decision to write, I found that I started noticing my ideas more, and got in the habit of writing them down, but I feel like it's still not enough. I need more! I think it's like photography, where you shoot a whole roll of film in hopes of getting one or two decent shots. Most of the ideas you get aren't going to be worth much, so you have to get a lot of them.
One of my solutions so far has been tarot cards, believe it or not. I bought a deck and a couple of books, and learned the basics. Not enough to actually do a reading or anything, but I know enough about what the cards are supposed to mean (and if I don't, I can look it up) that it's actually really easy to just pull a bunch of cards and start to build a story around them.
Anyone else have any interesting idea-generation techniques?
The hard part? The ending of a story. Come up with a good ending, and the rest is very, very easy.
Where the story starts is a decision you can make later. Where your story ends is more important.
For example: any movie.
Of course, if you have a way to start with an ending, and work back to an idea from that, I'd love to hear it.
Besides, even starting with the ending -- you need an idea for an ending.
Watch the movie The Usual Suspects. Tell me, what did the writer think up first? The opening scene? The characters? The setting? Nope! What came first was that end scene. Once they had that (killer) idea, the rest of the story could come later. But what point would there be in any of those characters even existing without that final scene?
Get yourself a strong ending and you'll have a story that endures.
Regardless, I'm probably a good 10 or 20 years away from writing any stories that endure. I'm just trying to write stories that aren't total garbage, and before you can do that, you have to write a lot that are garbage. And to do that, you need a lot of ideas.