Tag: Writing Exercises

Irrevocable Commitment

"Do small things with great love." -- Mother Teresa

In Chapter 8 of Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook, Donald Maass spends a lot of time on the idea of why we do what we do. Not just the big things, but the little ones too. He says it’s because we care. Without feeling like what we do matters, there’s no sense in getting out of bed in the morning.

So what happens when life presents us (or our characters) with a serious test? When faced by the ultimate stakes, we call up our deepest beliefs and convictions. Maass insists we find that point in our manuscript where the protagonist’s stakes hit home, a point of no return, and suggests writing out a paragraph to show the final unfolding of the character’s most primary motivation. Then, he asks us to imagine it as the opening paragraph.

He goes on to say it likely won’t work as an opening paragraph, but that you should be thinking in terms of that character’s irrevocable commitment from the start. What commitment has the character made that he just cannot turn away from that drives his actions and decisions and gives him the means to move forward? Why does he continue to get out of bed in the morning? Piling on heavy commitment and smothering your character with it at the beginning isn’t necessary, but giving them something to care passionately about at the beginning shouldn’t be overlooked. If it can connect to that emotionally charged moment later, even if it’s buried deep, all the better.

Maass claims this emotionally charged moment also has an opposite: a moment where of irresolution, aversion, justified selfishness or some similar reaction occurs. Identify that moment for your character. Find a place earlier in your manuscript, well before the moment of commitment, and place this juxtaposing bit there.

The idea behind this exercise isn’t necessarily to create usable paragraphs, but to enrich and deepen your characters actions with his inner commitment. If you have co-protagonists, make sure they both have strong commitments. Don’t leave out your antagonist too. Maass believes, all this conviction and emotional commitment from your characters will only increase that of your readers. It certainly can’t hurt.

Again, I think this is one of those things that makes sense on the surface, but is so much easier said than done and if done correctly, will really enrich your writing. As a reader, this is exactly the kind of thing I enjoy and appreciate when the author takes the time to work it in.

Can I do it myself? I don’t know. Thinking about Marcia and what makes her tick, I’m having a hard time with it, but I am seeing a common thread between her and Tabitha. I don’t think it’s THE thing in this instance, but it’s interesting nonetheless. I know the hero of this story needs a lot of work in this regard. I’m frustrated with his obstinate cardboard consistency.

Jodi’s got a great post about Internal Dialogue on her blog and I was teasing her about how many volumes would be in her book on craft of writing. In the comments section, she talks about wanting three sections for it. Groundwork, Technique and Layering. If you haven’t read her blog yet, go now. Great stuff there!

Anyway, my point here is I see this first section of Maass’ book as Groundwork. The stronger the foundation, the easier and strong everything else should be. It helps to know your characters inside and out to be able to tailor the plot to their particular idiosyncracies, fears, hopes, and dreams. Otherwise, the result can feel flat, formulaic and unsatisfying.

Personal Stakes

whist markersGambling was a part of life in the Regency Era. Card games abounded: faro, whist, hazard. Fortunes were won and lost on a nightly basis in the clubs, gaming hells, and card rooms of London. But I don’t want to talk about those kinds of stakes today.

Moving forward again in Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook by Donald Maass to chapter 7: Defining Personal Stakes.

This is digging in even deeper on the WHYs instead of just the WHATs that your protagonists are doing. Why does it matter in some profound and personal way? How does the plot shape, mold, twist, and otherwise reveal your protagonist and what do they stand to gain if they succeed in their goals or lose if they fail or just walk away?

In many ways, this is another digging down deep exercise. The question here isn’t WHY so much as “What would make their goal, need, desire, conflict, yearning matter even more?” Also, we’re supposed to be looking for inner motives more than outer motives here.

Maass asks us to exhaust our imaginations not once, not twice, but three times in coming up with ways to increase these personal stakes. He notes that when he teaches this in a workshop setting, the participants say the resulting lists look like plot complications. You want the character to be driven forward using as many of the possibilities you come up with. The more rocks you throw at your protagonist while (s)he’s up in that tree, the more interesting their journey should be.

I suspect this exercise is going to take some thinking and percolation since for the book I’m working on this area also seems to be rather weak or at least one sided. My heroine has some personal stakes she’s up against, but the hero remains a little lump of latent clay. And looking at some of the books I’ve really enjoyed lately, this is a make or break part of a book for me.

Reversing Motives

digging deeperAnd with this post, I’m diving back into Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook by Donald Maass. I didn’t completely abandon it over the last week, but I haven’t had big chunks of time to work without distractions, so this exercise has taken longer than usual.

I think the title of this exercise is a little misleading. The main point of the exercise seems to be digging down through the characters and their motivations so that you don’t just stop at “the easy or obvious answer” but there’s no focus whatsoever on taking an opposite approach to the scene, just a different one. Maass has you take any scene with your protagonist and figure what their motivation is as written and what their objective for the scene is. Then, you brainstorm a list of ALL the possible reasons why they might want this objective. Once you’ve created a list, you take the last one and rewrite the scene with that reason in mind as their primary motivation.

Maybe I’ve done this one incorrectly and missed the original intent, but I played the Why Game. Maybe you just need to get a variety of UN-related reasons on your list, but since these characters are pretty defined in my head, the resulting ideas I came up with related to one another. Anything else didn’t seem appropriate. So, I started out with my hero and came up with the following:

Goal: Get heroine to open up to him during dinner — she’s shy and ignoring him and he takes it as a personal challenge.

Why?

He wants to prove he can be a good boy.

Why?

He’s annoyed his hostess sat him next to her to keep an eye on him.

Why?

He’s scared his hosts were serious about kicking him out of their household.

Why?

He’s tired of being considered just barely socially acceptable.

Yes, let your inner toddler free to explore and keep asking why as long as you can stand it. Personally, I hate when my kids (tweens now) decide to be silly and play that game, but it is useful here in writing. Too often the first idea to pop into your head is very simplistic or very obvious. The deeper you dig into the why’s of the piece, the more interesting, fresher and honest it can become.

So I’m off to finish rewriting this particular scene, picking one for my heroine and then doing at least 3 more for each of them. Fun, huh? You betcha.

Adjust Your Volume

volumeJust like a piece of music won’t sound good if it’s played at all the same volume, writing needs to ebb and flow in its power and intensity as well. This isn’t always about the plot and intrigue, but sometimes it’s about your characters. Are they always running full tilt toward those windmills you have them chasing or do you give them a break and let them breathe a little?

They need to be larger than life, but if you also have them run full tilt all the time, they don’t get a chance to catch their breath nor will your reader. I mean, what will you do when you need that extra.. push over the cliff… if you’re already at 10, where can you go from there? Listen to Nigel — you need to leave a little room to get to 11!

At the same time, you’ll lose readers just as quickly if you start out with everything turned down mellow to only 3 or 4. There are times when basic actions are required, but other times understatement or blowing something completely over the top will work better.

That’s the current exercise in the Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook by Donald Maass. The exercise was a familiar one since it was along the same lines as one introduced in Margie Lawson’s lecture on Deep Edits.The fun here is to take a random action in your manuscript and empower it so it’s stronger and makes a bigger impact or to take that action and trim it down until it’s so muted that it also created a strong impact on the reader.

Which one will work best? Trial and error baby. Sometimes you can get very silly with these and it shows. Don’t use that one. 😉 I loved the two classes I took from Margie and gained a lot of useful tools and ideas from them. I think it is possible to carry it too far, and that all things in moderation are necessary.

It was great to see Jodi‘s comment the other day about “sometimes–yeah, it does take a year or so for things you think you should know, and really do know, to soak in and become part of the way you look at things.” It’s always reassuring when she thinks I’m heading in the right direction, even if she’s not sure about my method of getting there. Is there anything better than when different approaches click together and you realize that you’re managing to run some of these processes in the background?

Larger Than Life

attack-of-the-50-ft-womanWorking along in the Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook by Donald Maass, now that I’ve supposedly gotten a good grip on who my characters are and what they want, the next exercise is to figure out how to make them larger than life and discover the one thing they’d never say, never do, or never think.

And, you guessed it, find places for them to do just that during the course of the story.

So, I’ve got this mousy heroine that I’m working on and I need her to become a lioness. The thing is, I feel her character arc has had a decent treatment and she’s already doing and saying some things she would never consider at the beginning of the story. I probably need to do some work on the “thinking” part, but I’m not unhappy with her development at this point.

The hero’s another story. He’s the one I need to closely examine and shift from his table-top cardboard display cut-out existence to something more on the level of Allison Hayes in her role as Nancy Archer, an abused wife who takes revenge in a way that is both literally and figuratively larger than life. We’ll just hope he doesn’t come out more like Darryl Hannah. *ahem*

Ok, so maybe Attack of the 50-ft. Woman was too corny of an example to use. But who hasn’t daydreamed about taking revenge for something in some over the top manner, if only to make ourselves feel better. I think some of the best characters exhibit these larger than life behaviors and it’s part of what makes us follow their stories. What are they capable of, that we’d never be brave enough to do. All through their character arcs, they keep doing things that you wouldn’t to expect them to do, but each time that surprise just seems inevitable, even if we’re just a bit jealous of their pluck and rapier wits.

The nice little twist that Maass includes in this exercise is to find a place where the character forgoes one of these larger-than-life actions. When and where they back off from (to borrow a phrase from Michael Hauge) living in their essence and retreating behind their identity.

I think it’s important to see this hesitation, because without it, you don’t get the impact of their final decision to fully exist in their true form as a larger-than-life decision that is validated by their motivations and rewards their sacrifices and suffering through their inner conflicts and growth during their arc.

Inner Conflicts

ripplesI’m sure everyone is going to be sick of the Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook by Donald Maass by the time I’m done, but I’m finding it useful to think about these topics from outside the point of view of thinking only about my characters and I hope it provides someone else some insight along the way. So, thanks for putting up with it.

Looking back through some of my previous posts here, I think this is one of the areas where I need work. The idea seems simple enough: find a goal for the character and find something diametrically opposed or at least mutually exclusive to it and make the character want to strive for both equally. For romance novels, this seems to work best when both the hero and the heroine’s goals are mutually exclusive as well. Finding this sweet spot is proving elusive for me.

I went back and reread parts of On Writing Romance: How to Craft a Novel That Sells by Leigh Michaels mostly just to remind myself about how the hero and heroine need to be forced together into the same problem and writing this post led me back to the post I wrote reading this book the first time: Ker-Snap!

Now, it’s annoying to realize that I wrote that post last March and that I still haven’t managed to pound these ideas into my head, let alone make it work in my manuscripts.

So what’s this have to do with “inner conflicts” and my current manuscript? Both my characters have inner conflicts. Check. Do they have a problem that they’re trying to solve that threatens to keep them apart? Not particularly. The problem is the hero currently is just along for the ride. He’s very reactive, not proactively seeking anything at all.

So… back to digging deeper and figuring out not only what makes this guy tick, but also how what he wants creates conflict between him and the heroine that needs to be overcome. It’s not simply the fact that they like to inhabit very different social roles, but what exactly that is, I need to work out.

Defining Qualities

A magnifying glass studying definitions in a dictionary.Today’s exercise that I’m working on from the Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook by Donald Maasshas to deal with choosing defining qualities. What makes your characters who they are and not someone else? While you may take the easy route ( I seem to do so often enough! ) and choose an archetype that represents all that’s heroic about my characters, it may not be enough. You don’t want cardboard cutouts of people populating your stories. You need to find ways to show the reader the other sides of their character.

How can you show the human side of the arrogant and unfeeling rake or villain? How can you show the strength of the shy and demure heroine? Hmm… I seem to be dredging up a lot of opposites here, but what better way to create dimensionality and plant the seeds of inner conflict according to Maass?

I’m sure we can all name an absolute defining characteristic for all our favorite characters from books and movies. The question is, can you name more than one and how they also demonstrate its opposite during the course of the plot? Can you name three? Four? More?

What’s the point? Why bother? The more life and realistic contradictions you can put into your characters especially your main characters, the more realistic, human, and sympathetic they can become. You can’t just rely on plot points to provide opportunities for these extra qualities to emerge, though it will happen if you keep an eye out for them, but use these additional sides of your character, perhaps in unexpected places. Say your hero hates cats, but the heroine’s green-eyed ball of fluff is caught in a tree. You might have painted him as rude and insensitive rake, but what does it say about him if he rescues the poor stranded kitty?

Tons, depending on how you show it.

And really, that’s the point, make each character a distinct individual that can’t just be interchanged for another piece of cardboard in your story. Honestly, aren’t the characters the real reason why some books stay on your keeper shelf and others don’t?

Who’s your hero?

Hero or Zero? The Greatest American Hero (Ralph Hanley) played by William Katt.
Hero or Zero?
The Greatest American Hero
(Ralph Hanley) played by William Katt from 1981-83.

I got the Workbook that goes with Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass. I read the main book a while ago, and I haven’t had a chance to read much beyond the first chapter of the workbook yet, but what I’m seeing looks like a lengthy, but worthwhile endeavor.

The first exercise asks, “Who are your personal heroes?”

I have to admit I sat there dumbstruck for the longest time. This isn’t something I think about on a regular basis. How am I supposed to come up with someone off the top of my head. And just one person? C’mon, I’d much prefer to say all those single mom’s out there who make it look so easy (heck, any mom out there that makes it look easy!) than narrow my answer down to a single person.

Besides, won’t it matter who I pick and which protagonist I’m writing about? Won’t different characters require different heroic qualities to be focused on? Shouldn’t it matter who I name based on if I’m looking at a heroine or a hero for my story?

These are the questions I wrestled with yesterday. So did I arrive at any answers? Sorta.

You see, I’m going to run with the idea that it’s going to matter which individual I pick as a personal hero based on which character I’m trying to focus on. Juliet Gordon Low isn’t going to fit for every heroine I write. Jim Henson won’t work for just any hero or even likely ever more than one I write.

The other thing is, someone I see as a hero, no one else ever will. Things I see as heroic qualities may be no big deal to someone else. I think the series, The Greatest American Hero covered that quite well since much of the time they focused on every day situations instead of save-the-world type scenarios. Not everyone can be superman. Not everyone can afford Batman’s toys. Not everyone lives in such dire straights.

I can’t wait to see what other thought provoking questions the book holds in store. I mean, really, how often have you thought about who your personal heroes were since you had to write some corny essay about it in school?

Who would you name today? Why? Do you even remember when you first realized this person had that particular heroic quality?

Shouldn’t I be writing?

So, I got an reply email from DH after I sent him to let him know I fixed a couple things on his website:

“Shouldn’t you be writing? ;)”

Doh. Caught procrastinating again. He knows how I get when a puzzle is put in front of me.

To be honest, I have been running a lot of things through my head and discarding a lot of them immediately after. I know one of my problems with working on turning this folktale into a story is not having a clear idea of the characters it’s about. I have the sequence of events that need to happen, but very little idea of who they need to happen to except in the most general of terms. So, that brings me to the idea of prewriting.

Prewriting Activities

Along with the cycle of studying craft, reflecting upon new concepts, and a reading spree to recharge, I also realized stories come faster and less painfully when I sit and think about the characters and their situations. I don’t mean only in terms of plotting or character sketches, but that and more.

I wanted to explore a couple new ways to get the old imagination running beyond the normal ones I seem to rely on: brainstorming and freewriting. Brainstorming is collecting a bunch of ideas without censorship regarding their ability to fit with what you want to write. Not quite how I’ve been doing, but close enough. In my journal entries, I tend to do Freewriting. I sit and write everything coming through my head for a set period of time or until I get past some arbitrary word count.

Both those methods are useful, but I wanted to dig a bit deeper for something to help me regain the sense of urgency – the need to get the story onto the page before the details evaporate.

Pretend and Play

Let your imagination run wild. No rolling around on the floor with the kids and constructing a castle out of couch cushions is necessary, but what would it hurt?

Look, Imagine, Think

Building upon the previous one, take some time to stop and smell the roses. Become more aware of the world and people around you and make up stories using your observations. What causes the mundane to be interesting? How about the person you pass every day but don’t know – what is their story?

Another way to accomplish these last two is by daydreaming. I think this is what those people who appear to be napping are doing when they claim they’re plotting. 😉

Add Sound and Music

Try different styles to match the mood you’re trying to capture. I find instrumental music with distinct rhythms much better to write to than popular songs. I discovered I distract myself by singing along to the lyrics, even though I used to do my homework with the most raucous music possible playing.

Doodle in the Margins

There’s something to be said for scribbling down notes with a pen on paper. For some reason, I always get a better grasp of what I’m trying to do when I write longhand. Somehow, I can sense how the pieces don’t fit together as neatly by writing the words out instead of assuming the neat, little lines of text are where they all belong.

I took a printed copy of this post with me when I went to pick the kids up from school and scribbled all over it. I also realized that block of time is one of my most productive for idea generating and distilling. Provided I don’t have a paperback in my hand. It’s only 15 minutes or so, but what an opportunity to focus while I’m a captive audience to my imagination.

Look at Lists

Lists can be fun to make and to peruse for ideas. After brainstorming and coming up with all those related things, then you can tackle the task of rejecting what doesn’t work for your story. Or, search through various lists for eye-catching entries.

As always, the real trick becomes knowing when to stop and just go write.

So, what do you do when you first get to know your characters and your story?

Thursday Thirteen: Barrington Interview

 

13 Questions for Hugh Leighton

 

I decided to take Dana’s advice and put the reticent viscount on the spot. Now, I didn’t force him to wear pink or call him “Bo Peep”, he knows if he doesn’t cooperate, he might just be attending the masquerade dressed as such. I think the Duke and Duchess of Bolster could be convinced to help him lose a wager where that was the forfeit.

1. How would you describe yourself in a single sentence?
I am the sixth Viscount Barrington, my best friend is the Duke of Bolster and I’ve received no complaints from my looking glass nor the ladies.
2. How do you think others would describe your personality?
Don’t believe the scandal sheets! Half the time, they exaggerate until I can’t even believe I perpetrated such preposterous pranks. The other half, they omit the best parts of the story. However, society must find me an amusing fellow to have me around. I do keep getting invited back.
3. What do you see your role in life?
I feel it’s my duty to provide a bit of levity where there’s none to be found. London can be such a dreary place at times. People reflect their surroundings, you know. If not for me, people like Lord and Lady Threapwood would never have their noses tweaked. Deary people. Dreary.
4. How are you different from your peers?
I don’t pass on gossip and I’m very cautious, considering the source, when I hear it. I’ve been linked with numerous scandals over the years, but never has my name been linked with a woman’s in serious tattle.
5. What do you care most about?
Besides my friends and enjoying life? Not much, family is all and good for others, but it’s best when you can choose your own.
6. How do you deal with problems?
I usually try to laugh them off. If someone else has the problem, I try to make them laugh it off so they can forget about it.
7. What was the most significant thing that ever happened to you?
Must’ve been just after I was sent up to Eton. Was just after my mum passed and Grandmama packed me off saying my father was no fit role model. Anyway, I was set upon by a pair of bullies. Didn’t appreciate my teasing ways. James, er, the Duke of Bolster, stepped in and we’ve been close ever since.
8. What kinds of relationships do you have with the others?
As I mentioned, I’m close with the Wyndhams. Hm? Oh, that’s Bolster’s family. The Duchess and I are quite close; Bolster’s still jealous. Quite amusing, really. His cousins are sweet girls. A bit young for my tastes though. My grandmother? Oh, no, she hasn’t stuck her spoon in the wall yet. She still attempts to control my life and I try to stay just out of reach. She can be a veritable dragon at times. Particular lady friends? No, not at the moment. I try to stay out of reach of the schemers and matchmakers as well. No time for that.
9. What’s your opinion of the opposite sex?
If it’s not my title they want, it’s my money. Or both. Very few of them ever take the time to get to know the real men behind the titles they chase.
10. What would it take to make you change significantly?
It sounds trite, but I suspect the love of a good woman who accepted me for myself could reform my reckless ways. It’s not that I never want to marry, I just haven’t found the right woman. I thought I had once or twice, but we’ll just chalk those up to the ignorance and ill-preparedness of youth, shall we? Are we nearly done? Baring my soul like this is quite unusual and I’m expected at Bolster House.
11. Just three more questions, my Lord. Why do you think your story deserves to be told?
I have surprising depths for such a carefree fribble. No, I wouldn’t care to elaborate.
12. What would you would like to do that you have never done before?
I should like to find where I belong. I’ve always felt at sixes and sevens but what’s to be done?
13. What are you going to do now?
I’m off to Bolster House. The Duke and I are to play billards. And I dare hope this evening at White’s he shall be the one spouting horrid poetry as the forfeit. I’m quite tired of always losing to him.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1 Susan Helene Gottfried 2 Comedy Plus 3 Paige Tyler 4 pussreboots
5 Jennifer McKenzie 6 Gwen Mitchell 7 Nicholas 8

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!