Emotional Composition

Comedy and Tragedy Masks The exercise today on Romance Divas in their author of the month workshop with USA Today Bestselling Author C. L. Wilson is to take a scene we’ve already written and revise it so that it has a completely different tone. I’ve been thinking about which scene to use and am coming up with a blank, but that’s what inspired the comedy/tragedy masks today. They also fit with the recent emotional ideas and themes I’ve been looking at recently.

You’ll be glad to know I’m finish reading Dunne’s Emotional Structure! However, I’m not quite done thinking about or talking about all the strings and connections that I’m going to need to figure out how to seamlessly manipulate in my writing to move forward with what should be character-driven romance stories.

I realized this morning I’m freaking myself out and making writing those three sentences harder than necessary. I need to cultivate better habits regarding how I come up with and save ideas. I have a bunch of loose notes that are mostly character sketches and my story ideas are even rougher even if they may include several thousand words worth of “notes”.

It’s scary to admit, but it’s true. Mistress of the Storm is nothing but notes really, the same with Beneath His Touch – both are pretty much just opening sketches. What became Revealed started with much fewer notes, but, again, an opening sketch. I liked how Dunne compared the process to an artist’s sketch. You start with gesturals and move to more detailed sketches to make sure you’ve balanced your composition. I’ve done a lot of opening gesturals, but unfortunately, I only focused on one corner and never really took a necessary step back to look at the big picture.

I need to buckle down and work on coming up with complete ideas that go from beginning to middle to ending. I plan to practice this by setting aside time to brainstorm ideas and polishing them to that three-sentence stage. Later, I can take those and work them up to three pages. I want to acquire the habit of thinking bigger than just character sketches or laying groundwork for the conflicts between the main characters.

Architecture of Emotion

I got some phenomenal feedback on Revealed from several Divas. Jodi suggested some great websites: Michael Hauge’s article Screenplay Structure and The Unknown Screenwriter’s article on Transformational Character Arcs. She also recommended the book Emotional Structure: Creating the Story Beneath the Plot by Emmy award winning TV producer Peter Dunne, which has me itching to dig more into the architecture of emotion.

Jasmine also gave me excellent feedback much in the same vein – a need to see more justification behind the actions shown.

People (Hi, Bria and Jennifer!) have also said it needs to be longer. I’m good at making things over complicated. Considering the female lead was pulled from an abandoned novel idea, trying to fit her story in 1k words and even ending up with 2400 didn’t give it room to fully bloom. More experienced writers could probably pull it off, but not me.

This building characters from the ground up in a static medium is MUCH trickier than constructing them with more outright “told” and emergent behaviors that I’m so used to doing for online role playing games. So, it’s back to the drawing board (or at least will be after a weekend of camping with no ‘net) and burying my nose in theory again.

The best laid plans…

fighting mouse I’m not sure if my plan is going to work. Yesterday, I worked on a story arc for another story idea that’s been around for a while. I spent far longer than 30 minutes on it and I didn’t get beyond than the set up and inciting incident.

I should probably start on one that I don’t already have any part written out. I ended up taking what I’d already written and trimmed it to 250 words and left it at that. My internal editor had a field day and, of course, once I got to the point where I’d previously stopped writing – SPLAT! Crash and burn, baby. Do not pass go; do not collect $200. There was a complete dead standstill in my brain.

I don’t know why I have a problem with that. I’ve run into it several times now. I’ve hit that same point in the Food Critic story as well. I stopped and now there seems to be a brick wall preventing me from moving forward in the story. On one hand, I suspect it has something to do with how thoroughly I’ve thought through a story. On the other, I haven’t made an explicit agreement with myself to come back to finish it. There’s also the likelihood that something shiny grabbed my attention in the meantime.

However, I need to make sure I try this exercise the way I planned and not give up so easily. Writing exercises done only in your head don’t accomplish anything. My friend, Bria of the Purple Hearts, commented on the previous post that she was learning a lot from me on process. I hope it’s not just lessons in what NOT to do. 🙂

More on Structure

Character Arc and Story Structure — Ref.: Peder Hill at http://www.musik-therapie.at/PederHill/index.htm

I neglected to find a pretty image to go along with today’s post. I chose the image and post to serve as a focal point. The diagram is very familiar to me by now. Books on plot and structure obligingly include at least one variation when discussing the Classic Three Act Structure and overall story arcs.

Today, I stumbled across Peder Hill’s take on how a novel is written. I haven’t dug through all the sections on his site yet. I’m still immersing myself in learning how to construct a story that doesn’t just meander aimlessly as it explores characters and conflict. I’m probably too methodic in my approach, but my brain works that way. Learn the rules, color inside the lines, and play along with the sheet music firmly on the stand in front of me. That sort of rigidity keeps me in my comfort zone while I’m learning new concepts.

I decided that I need to set aside another 30 minutes out of my day and practice writing extremely short pieces that include a set up, several increasing tests and crises that build to the climax and then wrap everything up. I will probably also sit and brainstorm these beforehand instead of trying to do them off the cuff. To make this work, I will need some accountability, so I’ll try to post the best one of these each week. So if you don’t see any, ask me what happened and make me go write one!

Braids: Pulling it all together

Sometimes I think I’ve bitten off more than I can comfortably chew.

The biggest problem I’m facing with my romance novel is deciding how to structure it so it’s interesting and makes sense. Romance novels don’t contain just one story line (or at least the interesting ones *I* like don’t). The romance is the over-arcing story, but the hero and the heroine must also grow and be challenged and become worthy of each other. At the same time, they’re having to move through the steps of intimacy in a believable way. All this just so the reader can travel an interesting route to reach the Happily Ever After.

Figuring out a logical and plausible sequence for all this is a complicated puzzle for which I find I have few tips and even fewer strategies. I love solving puzzles, but this is a new type and I’m struggling to see how to weave the patterns.

I’m currently trying to lay down my story threads in a pattern called braiding, where you interleave the elements from one line with two others. This is making a little more sense from an analytical point of view, but I still feel stuck in how the middle is supposed to play out.

I think I have a few gaps in my strands and I need to fill those in before I can easily weave everything together and not just have a tangled knot in the middle.

I am going to solve this. Must. Solve. Puzzle. I’m off to re-scatter the pieces and see if any new strategies or fits become obvious.

Roadmaps Are Key

Every journey starts with a plan. Whether you’re going to the supermarket or off on a well-deserved vacation, you have some sort of plan. It may not be a formal plan – a collection of ideas, a shopping list or just a destination. Your plan might also be quiet elaborate, including a detailed itinerary with a list of must-see tourist attractions and exact turn-by-turn directions to and from your destination.

In either case, the plan always includes your starting point, a destination and your planned route to get there.

Prompted by a detour into plotting and scenes, the idea of an overall plan has been on my mind this week. If I’m going to not just write a novel, but make a serious hobby of writing, I need a better roadmap to accomplish it.

Until now, I’ve approached writing in a haphazard fashion. I would take an idea for a novel, write up some notes on it (or not) and dive right in. This isn’t working for me. I always become stuck right around chapter three. In other words, I’d never make it much past “Boy meets Girl” before running out of steam.

I’m tired of this.

My goal at the beginning of this summer was to finish this novel. (Notice the lack of an end date there? A bad sign already.) I can now comfortably write a 1000-word journal entry in 30 minutes and I’m doing it daily. I can also crank something out for 20 minutes on demand (Thanks to the Romance Divas in the chat challenges!)

I find I need a better roadmap. I’m driving in circles. Don’t get me wrong, the scenery along the way has been interesting, but my inner child keeps asking, “Are we there yet?”

I realize this isn’t going to be an easy or short journey and there are going to be many detours along the way. However, I need to better plan this trip, so I can better enjoy the side attractions along the way because I am determined to make it to my destination.

I’m not looking for a brief visit; I want to move.

Scenic Structures

What comes to mind when you hear the phrase “Scenic Structures”? It might be a quaint old building in a romanticized setting. You may also picture a well-known landmark like the Eiffel Tower, the Great Wall of China, the Alhambra or even the pyramids.

Unfortunately, these aren’t the types of structures crowding my brain this week. After looking into how plot is a process, I decided I needed to get a better grasp on the basic unit of a scene. Enter Jack M. Bickham’s Scene & Structure.

Bickham provides a more detailed look at how scenes and sequels work within the plot and how their construction. Understanding of what I’d done wrong in the first draft of the short story snapped into focus.

The story still has huge problems with the plot and the non-crises in it, but the mechanical feel of each scene had resulted from a very mechanical approach. I had been too intent on following a rigid formula instead of just trusting my instincts and allowing the variations to come naturally. I bet you knew scenes and sequels don’t have to be given equal weight.

I may never go back to that story, but it was a valuable exercise. I may try a different tact, taking the same basic situation of “Boy and Girl thrown together by snowstorm”, but the rest of it pretty much needs to go.

I’m going to find that happens, a lot. It’s OK. It’s ok to write crap in a first draft. The trick is learning how to improve on it and what to actually keep.

I looked back over some of my older attempts, and UGH! Almost unreadable. The first attempt contained vast quantities of purple prose. The enthusiasm was there, but you could tell I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I’m trying to fix that.

Plotting A Course

I picked up a variety of books at Borders yesterday. They had a small in the writer’s reference section, but I found a couple that were on my list to check out.

20 Master Plots and how to build them by Ronald B. Tobias. I read this one yesterday. “Plot is a process, not an object.” It was definitely worth the money for that statement alone. The writing in it is very straightforward and the examples are helpful in illustrating the type of plot used.

Scene & Structure by Jack M. Bickham which is part of “The Elements of Fiction Writing” series from Writer’s Digest Books. It looked like where I was feeling unprepared.

Chapter after Chapter by Heather Sellers. This one was recommended on the RD forums. They didn’t have
Page After Page, or I probably would have picked that up as well.

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus by John Gray, Ph.D. I figured I needed a look at how men and women communicate and a little less jaded look at how men think.

I did sit and skim through the “No Plot, No Problem!” book by the NaNoWriMo guy, and I decided it probably had some useful things in it, but it wasn’t something I wanted to distract myself with right now. I’m interested in learning the ropes, not just dashing things down until something clicks. I want to understand why something clicks or not so I can improve the next try, or be able to do it again.

I also went to Staples and bought a bunch of post-its and index cards and a big foam board to play with. So not much actual writing this past week, but I’m soaking up stuff like a sponge.

Art & Craft

John Gardner’s The Art of Fiction is rough going – for me, the language isn’t friendly or immediately accessible. Lots of good points in there, if I can just untangle it all. DH pointed me to the Turkey City Lexicon this morning. Ah, earthy and practical. Phew! Much easier to read. I will finish the Gardner, though.

My DH also asked me if I’d posted anything for feedback. I admitted I hadn’t and that it had taken a lot to get up the nerve to show him that original short story draft and the version of events seen from the guy’s POV. There were no scribble marks on the page, this morning. He said it read as more realistic-fiction than romance, and boy, this showed that the guy certainly didn’t love her — he was a calculating shark. Ok. So not what I was going for, but I figure practice is good stuff, regardless.

I’ve been looking through both the short story and my novel for scenes for dialogue to enter in a Romance Divas contest. I’m torn between the short story scene where they discover they’ve been put in the same hotel room and a scene from the novel where the hero charges out on the terrace and punches his best friend because he thinks he’s about to ruin the heroine’s reputation.

I think I’m also going to stop by Border’s and look for a book on plotting today too.

Any recommendations?