She's brash about her character's violence and flippant about the character's flippant coping strategies. At moments, I sense the writer is acting the character.
To convey the truth about a character often takes stepping into the protagonist's shoes, be they flip flops, stilettos or boots to get to know her inside and out well enough to convey her truth. Often that takes exploring the dark side of ourselves.
By the 3rd draft, a writer slips on her own shoes and plots a point to the violence by revealing the truth about the character's coping strategies in scene through cause and effect. A powerful secondary character feels sympathy for the protagonist. He helps the reader, too, to feel sympathy rather than repulsion for her. The character may talk about killing everyone flippantly as a coping mechanism. Who she is is uniquely her. Her feeling are universal. Arrange the scenes to show the true cost to the character herself as she moves from denial to acceptance.
She enters the end, fully conscious of who she is and with a plan to get her where she thinks she has to go.
To familiarize yourself with the Universal Story and the basic plot terms in the above blog post:
1) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master (Now also as a Kindle edition)
By: Martha Alderson, M.A.,
on 11/22/2010
Blog: Plot Whisperer for Writers and Readers (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Memoir, writing the middle of a story, how do I plot a novel, how to begin a novel, screenplays? flashbacks in stories, how to write a story, Add a tag
2) Watch the Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. A directory of all the steps to the series is to the right of this post. 27-step tutorial on Youtube
3 Watch the Monday Morning Plot Book Group Series on YouTube. A directory the book examples and plot elements discussed is to the left of this post.
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By: Martha Alderson, M.A.,
on 11/22/2010
Blog: Plot Whisperer for Writers and Readers (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Memoir, writing the middle of a story, how do I plot a novel, how to begin a novel, screenplays? flashbacks in stories, how to write a story, Add a tag
Writers struggle with where and how to begin their stories for the same reason many writers begin in present story time and immediately flip to a flashback.
The moment the protagonist loses her innocence or footing often takes place years before the real story time begins.
In order to prevail at the Climax, the protagonist must rediscover the beliefs, skills, knowledge, or experience lost in her back-story.
I use The Kite Runner, Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden as examples on Step 16 of the Plot Series: How Do I Plot A Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? Click here to read more.
1 Comments on What Skills Necessary for Protagonist to Rediscover?, last added: 11/23/2010
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wow, great links! I love this whole vlog revolution : )