The conference lived up to its name; the entire desert appeared in full bloom upon our arrival in Phoenix. Met up with my agent and dear friend, Jill Corcoran, and fun began. My name badge as The Plot Whisperer seemed to part the waters; everyone was more than kind and often downright respectful to me. No Plot Whisperer book in the bookstore. They sold out before I even arrived (note to self: ask for a guarantee that the number of books available for sale equal the number of writers anticipated at my workshops)
Everywhere I turned were posters of book covers with women of incredible beauty clutching men of incredible strength oozing incredible desire. I fell in love with two young women writers, with their beauty and their belief and their earnestness. In the blinding desert light, a writer I had connected with just a few times on Facebook, albeit in a powerful way, freed me of a deep sadness as easily as if she waved a magic wand over my head. The heat of the sun lingered into the night.
I quaked a bit under the weight of the expectation writers expressed for my "keynote" plot workshop on the final day. The heat of 200 anxious writers radiated up to me high on the stage and firing hotter and hotter as more and more light bulb moments danced over their heads.
On our way out, a writer asked for help with her story. Using the plot planner she created in the workshop, she pointed to the key scenes in her story, her face filled with joy and confident in the layout of the dramatic action scenes. Her face turns serious as she expresses concern about her character's likability in the beginning first quarter of the novel. Then she slices the edge of her hand, cutting off the first quarter and looks up beaming as she declares she likes her story from that point on to the end.
I wait for a moment, hoping she'll feel what I just witnessed. When she doesn't, I utter the impossible: "Why not start there?" The pain in her eyes make me long to pull back my words. I've just asked her to cut 100 pages from a story that is overly long. Still, 100 pages...
"But I introduce important elements in the beginning."
"They can be integrated into the new beginning," I suggest.
"But I love my first scene."
I cringe, wondering how many hours she spent making it perfect.
"It's only one of lots of scenes you love," I suggest.
Exhaustion overtakes her face. Three intense days. I don't want it to end this way. Still, I know when she's rested, the 300 of pages that work and bring her energy and joy will reach out to her. She has a success debut already out. She knows what she is doing...
Advice to self: Rather than labor over something that causes you pain and frustration and feelings of failure, why not start with what brings you joy...
People read stories and go to the movies 70% for the character. We love to peek into other people's lives, even if the other people are mere characters in a book or movie.
This last writer's story is filled with dramatic action, which makes for an exciting story. I find myself anxious to hear what happens next, and what happens after that. The writer masterfully provides more and more compelling action, and does so seamlessly through consistent cause and effect. The Dramatic Action plot line rises quickly and effectively.
Still, the more intriguing the mystery, the scarier the suspense, the more cardboard action figure-like the characters become as they passively allow the dramatic action to happen. The more exciting the action, the more the characters are ignored and the less I find out about how the characters. especially the protagonist, are affected by the dramatic action. Without the help of the character to draw me closer, I find myself separating further and further from the story.
At this point in the consultation, I go over the importance of goal setting for the protagonist ~~ both at the scene level and the overall story level. The better a writer is at establishing concrete goals for her characters, the easier it is for her to keep track of the affects on the character as the character succeeds and fails in achieving her goals.
[Note: At a recent Plot Planner Writers Workshop, one of the writers expressed confusion between a goal and a dream. A goal is quanifiable and under the protagonist's control. In other words, the character is capable of succeeding. Whether they actually do or not is up to them. A dream, on the other hand, requires a bit of magic or help from outside sources. The protagonist cannot fulfill his or her own dreams, but must rely on the help of others.]
In the consultation, I never find out why the protagonist is missing when her husband is nearly killed. Why? Because the writer doesn't know either. A critical door into the character on a deep, personal level is never opened by the author and thus, would have robbed the future readers or movie-goers from the intimate bond of knowing.
The writer uses the protagonist to advance the Dramatic Action plot line, but ignores the Character Emotional Development plot line almost completely.
Still, she has done the hard part. The story is written. The dramatic action propels the story in quick and exciting ways. Once pointed out, the doors are easily opened. By attending to what is behind each door, the writer's chances improve for bringing satisfaction to future fans through knowing the character even better than the character knows herself.
Funny to have two plot consultations with two different writers with such antithetical points of view when it comes to Plot versus Character.
In my previous blog post, I ranted about plot getting a bad rap. The day after, I consult with a writer who cares only for plot (or, since I believe character transformation is critical to plot, rather the dramatic action side of plot.) This writer states his preference right up front when he declares that he doesn't know how the character changes (Character Emotional Development) or what the story means over all (Thematic Significance). Further, he informs me, he doesn't care about that. All he wants is an action-packed story that will sell. (mass-market airport book as described by yesterday's writer)
Hmmmmm, I know there are writers of mystery and suspense who are quite successful without doing much to develop the character. But, it seems odd to me to think of a character going through all she does and not be affected by the dramatic action on some level -- perhaps not to a level of transformation but at least change. And, at the end of a long, exciting read, why not leave the reader with something to think about?
Oh, well, those are my ideals.
I'm here to support writers in their quest to follow their dreams. Not to judge. At least, not too harshly, but to help writers develop their stories.
When I have a spare moment -- yeah, right!-- I plan to do a survey of writers and ask what is their preference for writing Character-driven versus Action-driven stories AND which do they prefer reading?? Stay tuned....
I wonder if the reason the publishing industry is languishing, the reason we have so few people purchasing books is because not enough writers are interested in writing their dreams--telling stories that have action and move us through the changes we witness the protagonist undergoing.
Too many writers are only interested in writing what sells.
And what sells doesn't sell that much.
What a great post.
Thanks for sharing.
I think for most writers, either plot or character comes most easily. For me, I start with characters naturally, but it is agony for me to come up with an intriguing plot. But good writing needs both, so its just a matter of hard work :-) Thanks for the great post! (my creative writing blog)
I have just finished reading A Woman of Substance by Barbara Taylor Bradford. I don't read novels of this type but read this as a "lesson" of how this New York Times, bestselling author handles dialog, characters, plot. I came away with it with an overall sense of too much detail, too much description, and the dialog of brogue and working-English was difficult to read. This novel was first published in 1979. The plot had several hiccups. For me, the novel's plot was the thing, and all the description could have been judiciously edited out. It was pedantic, in my opinion. Plot is the string on which the pearls of character are strung ... you have to have both for a necklace ... you can't have a longer string than pearls and vice versa. But for me, plot is what sets certain stories above others and makes it memorable.