Writing The Perfect Scene Having trouble making the scenes in your novel work their magic? In this article, I’ll show you how to write the “perfect” scene. Maybe you think it’s impossible to write the perfect scene. After all, who can choose every word perfectly, every thought, every sentence, every paragraph? What does perfection mean, anyway? Honestly, I don’t know. But structure is pretty well understood. The Two Levels of Scene Structure A scene has two levels of structure, and only two. The large-scale structure of the sceneThe small-scale structure of the scene This may seem obvious, but by the end of this article, I hope to convince you that it’s terribly profound. Before we begin, we need to understand how we keep score. Your reader is reading your fiction because you provide him or her with a powerful emotional experience. If you fail to create these emotions in your reader, then you have failed. Large-Scale Structure of a Scene The large-scale structure of a scene is extremely simple. GoalConflictDisaster
Article of The Month This is a quick exercise designed to sketch out the major events of your novel. It only gives you a map-- you have to make the drive yourself! Get a kitchen timer or set your alarm. You're going to free-write for three minutes on several questions. (If you want to cheat and write for five minutes on each, go ahead. Just be warned the exercise might take you an hour then.) Type or write the question, then set the clock, read the question allowed, and go. 1. 3. There's not enough money for costumes. 7. Okay, half hour's up. Answer 4 gives the protagonist's intended destination. # 6 lists obstacles to the resolution of the conflict. Just remember, your ending is going to help determine the message your reader will retain after closing the book, so make it fit your theme.
What is conflict | Writing Beginners are always told to have conflict in every scene. Keep that story moving! But what is conflict? Too often it is taken to mean an "Odd Couple's" squabbling. Conflict can be more subtle, more complex, more interesting than "she says tomayto, he says tomahto." A character's inner conflict is not just being in two minds about something, not just being torn between obvious incompatibles ("I want to be a priest, and yet I love her") but is about being in a new situation where old attitudes and habits war with and hinder the need for change. You show these internal conflicts not by means of internal dialogue (which is a cop-out and is dull), but by showing your characters responding to their own inner compulsions. A character's inner conflict can be between what he thinks he wants and what he really wants. A good story has more than two people in it. Conflict must always be resolved, and every layer you create needs its closure. You resolve your central conflict by choosing a winner.
Conflict Test 1. Does one of the characters have to change in order for the conflict to be resolved? _____ Yes, Score 1 _____ No, Score 0 _____ Both characters change, Score 2 2. _____ Yes, Score 0 _____ No, Score 1 3. _____ Yes, Score 1 _____ No, Score 0 _____ Ask this question to someone else who’s read your story. 4. 5. _____ Yes, Score 1_____ No, Score 0 6. _____ Yes, Score 0 _____ No, Score 1 Score 9: Perfect SCORE!!!! Stupid Plot Tricks Excerpted from my lecture on Stupid Plotting Tricks By Teresa Nielsen Hayden Start with some principles: A plot doesn't have to be new. Looked at from this angle, the Internet's various lovingly-compiled cliche lists are a treasury of useful plot devices. 1. 2. Alternately, you can go here and have them generated for you. You're going to make a plot out of them. 3. 4. 5. 6. Did I hear someone murmur that this is overkill? Overkill is good for you! Flee, puny humans! ©2000 by Teresa Nielsen Hayden, TNH@panix.com
CALLIHOO Writing Idea Generators: The 37 Dramatic Situations The Thirty-six (plus one) Dramatic Situations Georges Polti says that all stories boil down to just 36 dramatic situations and takeoffs of those situations. Somebody else out there added #37. (Note: In several cases, specific gender in the original descriptions has been replaced with non-specific gender. Your situation: 27. Still stuck for plot ideas? Cosmic Thoughts | Oblique Strategies | Random Science Fiction Story Ideas One-Page Plotting One of my writer friends (you know who you are) dared me to simplify a plot worksheet down to one page that would work for all story lengths and genres. Of course I couldn't resist the challenge, so here it is (I plotted John & Marcia's story to demonstrate how to use it): Plot Worksheet Title: Angel’s Darkness Main Conflict: John, a half-demon cop, and Marcia, a half-angel librarian, must stop a demon from using a mystical diamond that has the power to open the gates of Hell. Subplots: John must accept or reject his demonic side. Marcia must accept or reject her human side. The demon falls in love with Marcia, and must choose to destroy the world or rule over it with Marcia at his side. Main Story Events: John and Marcia meet on the night the demon steals the diamond; the demon uses Marcia to smuggle the diamond away from its guardian. The demon forces John and Marcia to go on the run in order to protect the diamond and evade his attacks.
jimbutcher: The Great Swampy Middle Every writer runs into this, generally in every single book. The middle. It lurks between the beginning of your book and the exciting conclusion, and its mission in life is to Atreyu you right down into the yucky, mucky mire in order to prevent you from ever actually finishing. The Great Swampy Middle (or GSM) knows no fear, no mercy, no regret. And it laughs at you. The smug bastard. Okay. The middle of books is HARD, especially for beginning writers. It's like a swamp. Man. It's when an author starts getting lost that the book's middle becomes the Great Swampy Middle. Those of you who have written this much of a book already know exactly what I'm talking about. News flash: the reader is going to get that, and it's going to kill their fun. But most won't have that kind of patience. (That's bad.) But I say unto you, fear not. Here we go: The problem with GSMs is that most writers don't have a very good idea of exactly where they want to go. Same thing applies in the story. There. Jim
no whitespace - writers' cheatsheet Plunge Right In... Into Your Story, That Is! by Rekha Ambardar One of the things you're required to do when taking swimming lessons is to jump in at the deep end of the pool, dive under water smoothly, and rise up to the surface. For most swimmers, diving under the water and then swimming to the surface poses hardly any problem; it's the jump at the deep end that unnerves one. Most of us prefer to ease in unobtrusively from any other area of the pool and loiter at the deep end, pretending that we did jump in. Somehow, this tendency of easing into the pool is the analogy that compares with the fictional technique of beginning storytellers -- an absolute no-no in fiction writing. Stories that grab the attention of editors are the ones that start in the middle of a critical scene, especially important in mystery fiction. Begin with Action A few years back, I might have been tempted to go into a lengthy description of why Myrna happened to be looking at travel brochures by herself. Begin in the Middle Dole out the Backstory
How to write a novel* Ever wanted to write a novel but had no clue how? Having just finished my fifth novel, I am now ready to pass on my accummulated novel-writing wisdom to those what have never writ one but wants to. Here is the complete, full and unexpurgated guide: First of all you need a computer. (Yeah, yeah, I know in the olden days they made do with quill, ink and paper, and typewriters—aargh! On that computer you need a word processing program. If you want to write your novel relatively quickly and productively, it should have no access to the interweb thingy, also no games, or anything other than the two aforementioned programs. Once you have your equipment set up in a suitably ergonomic way (that’s right, I’m with Scalzi on the efficacy of coffee shops—that way lies bad backs, soul-destroying one-night stands, and caffeine-stained teeth) open up your wp program and type in the title of your novel. Do not spend a lot of time on this. Do you just start the novel or do you outline? To sum up:
Odyssey Writing Tips Page #2 The plot forms the underlying structure of your story, and if that structure is weak, the story will be weak as well. Many times it's hard for the writer to see the underlying structure of his own story, and this makes it impossible for the writer to judge whether this structure is effective and whether it is the best possible structure for the story. One powerful method of revealing the structure of a story is to outline it. The outline reveals the bones of the story like an X-ray. You may outline a story before you write it, creating the framework of bones and then building on it, or you may write a rough draft of the story first and then outline it, revealing the underlying framework and making necessary adjustments. Here's how to outline. Number each scene in the story. Have any conflicts been introduced? These questions all help to define the structure and nature of your plot and to reveal any weaknesses. Now go to the next scene and do the same thing. Now go try your hand at it!