The "And then!" Plot

Folks, let's talk plot and how it relates to your query letter, because I've seen a mistake repeated a few times recently and heard other writers complaining about the same thing.

Here's the story. Fred is going to work. He meets Wilma. They have their meet-cute and they both like each other.

AND THEN!!! Fred breaks his foot, and Wilma stops by to loan him her crutches.

AND THEN!!! Wilma runs out of milk and goes to the grocery store where she gets a flat tire, so Fred comes over and changes it.

AND THEN!!! There's a thunderstorm that knocks out power to the city, so they can't charge their phones to text each other.

AND THEN!!! A wormhole opens up and Fred has to go shut it to save civilization.

You get the picture. None of the major plot points are related to each other. It's as though the story itself were a bunch of snapshots. Sure, the main characters keep getting together, and sure, they'll probably have their Happily Ever After at the end, but it's not satisfying because none of the events are related to each other any more than the first pitch ("STRIKE!") is related to the second pitch ("BALL!") and so on.

The solution to this is to figure out how to connect your plot points with "And therefore" instead. Fred and Wilma meet and hit it off, and she loves hiking, so Fred pretends he loves hiking too. They decide to meet for a hike.

AND THEREFORE Fred breaks his foot, because he doesn't know what he's doing.

See how this works? When you're reading it, everything seems to flow naturally one from the next, almost as if the events were inevitable. Of course Fred would want to show off and end up hurting himself. Of course Wilma would respond to that with compassion and just a little mockery. And at the end, of course that thunderstorm would open the wormhole, and of course Fred will be willing to climb the skyscraper and shut the wormhole because he's learned from the foot-breaking incident how to be careful and not show off.

In hindsight, all those things will be perfectly sensible. Of course there are plot twists, but not plot twists like, "Oh, and then they got into a huge car crash and everything changed." Not unless you've shown us ahead of time that your MC is a lousy driver who doesn't pay attention, and therefore was texting while driving and hit a truck.

Readers and editors don't like and-then plots, and therefore neither do agents.

And therefore your query shouldn't look like a string of things that happen to a bunch of interesting people.

One of my ex-agents (we shall not name which) accidentally turned out a pitch like that for one of my stories, and I only realized it when we got back a rejection saying, in effect, there's no causation here. Of course in the story there was lots of causation, but in an attempt to work a complicated plot into a 250-word pitch, the agent had in effect listed a bunch of plot points. And then they do this, and then they go there, and then the antagonist does this other thing, and then they have more problems, and then they pull it together somehow.

So we reworked the pitch until it had that sense of rolling inevitability. This happens and they respond by doing that, which has the unintended side effect of this other thing, which triggers a specific response by the antagonist, which results in the following chaos for the main characters.

See how that works?

Oh, and yes, "and then!!" happens all the time in real life. And then you come home to find a notice from the IRS in your mailbox saying you're getting audited because you reversed two digits on your 2011 tax return. And then your kid falls out of a tree and breaks his arm. And then you get a promotion and will have to move to Pensacola. Keep in mind that life itself doesn't make for good fiction, and that people expect the author of their fiction to craft a story that flows toward a climax and a resolution.

And therefore here is your takeaway: when pitching, set up your characters and their circumstances so that as every piece unfolds, the agent will feel a sense of, oh, I see why that would happen, and then Yes, they'd get into trouble doing that, and then Oh no, they're making their situation worse.

Remember, it's not "AND THEN!!! you get an agent." It's and therefore you got your agent. You crafted a wonderful story with a compelling plot and characters who responded believably to their circumstances, and therefore readers loved it.

Jane Lebak is the author of Honest And For True. She has four kids, eleven books in print, three cats, and one husband. She lives in the Swamp and tries to do one scary thing every day. You can like her on Facebook, or visit her at her website at www.janelebak.com.

Your characters need their potatoes

A few weeks ago, while weeding in the overgrown plot alongside my yard, I yanked up a potato.

I found myself staring at the thing until I realized what it was, recognized the leaves, and I had an "Oh!" moment. Oh: last year, I must have missed one of the potatoes, and it had wintered over, and long after I'd forgotten it, the thing had done what potatoes do: it made a plant.

I stuck it back in the ground. But I realized our characters need their potatoes too. They need potatoes served three ways.

First, there's the character trait of which your character is barely aware. The reader is introduced to your character with this trait as a part of his whole, but over time readers begin to wonder why he's the way he is.

At some point, the plot yanks up something that looks like a weed, and hey, potato! It's the event or formative background that caused your character to become a liar or to hunger for justice or to fear a long-term relationship.

The reason my garden had potatoes was pure bad memory on my part: I moved something in the pantry and discovered a bag of sprouted potatoes. Given that I live in the Swamp, which as my Patient Husband says is "teeming with a surprising amount of life," I went into the overgrown leaf-dump and stuck the potatoes into the ground. "Have a good time, guys!" I said, figuring that at the very least, they'd turn into compost. Remember, I'm a New York City girl, and I know where vegetables come from: they come from Key Food.

The half-dozen potatoes surprised me by becoming four potato plants, which surprised me further by becoming twenty or thirty delicious potatoes last summer. I thought I'd gotten them all. Surprise!

Here's my second surprise: I'd forgotten the two that died, but later I discovered the two potatoes that never sprouted plants last year had put up plants this spring.

Here's your character's second potato: plot elements you introduced in the first half of the book should sprout in the second half. JK Rowling is an expert at this kind of thing: she'll slip something in, and then when it comes up again, instead of it being a new plot element, you say, "Oh!" Potato.

(Diana Wynne Jones is the master of this sleight-of-hand; the moment you realize what's going on in Archer's Goon is the simultaneous joy of feeling a story unfold and seeing how a black-belt level writer creates perfection. She does it just as well in Howl's Moving Castle. I'm told Beethoven is an expert at this too, but I'm not classically-trained enough to tell you where he does it, only that he does. Those amazing new musical elements in the development section actually arise out of the themes. Go figure.)

The key point you're aiming for is recognition. When something surprising happens, the reader should be surprised not because it's a shock, but rather because it feels right only he hadn't made the connection until now. It should seem obvious to the reader in retrospect: of course this would have come back to haunt the main character; of course this is who the main character really is; of course that's why these events were happening. Chekov tells you that a gun in the first act has to be shot in the third, but the potato corollary to this law is that a gun shot in the third act has to have shown up in the first. Has to have shown up and then been left underground, wintering over, forgotten, and then when everything seems dead at the end of the winter, it opens its eyes, and up pokes its head.

At the moment, I have seven potato plants, two from the dormant potatoes and five leftovers I missed in last year's harvest. And that brings you to the third.

Your third potato is the sequel. A sequel must have elements that were planted in the previous novel, but they have to be planted subtly and deeply enough that your previous books aren't filled with clutter. You have to plant your potatoes and then forget them. Leave them to winter over, presumed dead underground until one day the reader opens the sequel. He'll find that potato and remember when you planted it. Planted, but never harvested.



---
 Jane Lebak is the author of The Wrong Enemy. She has four kids, three cats, two books in print, and one husband. She lives in the Swamp and spends her time either writing books or crocheting inappropriate objects. At Seven Angels, Four Kids, One Family, she blogs about what happens when a distracted daydreamer and a gamer geek attempt to raise four kids. If you want to make her rich and famous, please contact the riveting Roseanne Wells of the Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency. 

"Don't Kill the Dog"

At a writing conference two years ago, I attended the editors' panel in hopes of finding out what they were (and weren't) looking for. I had a women's fiction project out on submission at the time, and I suppose I was hoping to hear one of them say, "You know what I'd really like? A contemporary update of The Taming of the Shrew set at the Jersey shore." Alas, no such words were uttered. In fact, what I did hear from them dashed any hopes I might have had of selling that book. (Full disclosure--the manuscript remains unsold.)

About halfway through the panel, an audience member asked a pretty standard question: What causes you to immediately reject a book? One editor said she refuses to read any story that involves child abuse, another mentioned that she was tired of the spurned-woman-starts-over trope. Each one of them had specific pet peeves. Finally, the last editor said that she can't bear to read a story in which a pet dies. "Don't kill the dog!" she warned. Other editors on the panel agreed, and heads in the audience nodded approvingly.

Except mine, which was hung in shame. Because in my book, I did exactly what that editor had warned against--I killed the dog. My main character, Kate, is a modern day shrew who has affection for only two beings in her life, her elderly grandpa and her dog, Buddy. I believed that in order for Kate to grow and change, she had to come to terms with some kind of loss in her life. I wrote what I believed was a moving scene in which Kate grieves for her lost pet, a moment that emerges as a turning point for her. Despite the fact that more than one of my beta readers questioned whether the dog had to die, as did my agent. But I held firm, because I believed that the dog's death served the story.

The late, great Baci--the "ill-behaved fox terrier" in my author bio (which I don't have the heart to edit).

Until a couple of weeks ago, when I had to put down my own beloved canine, the charmer you see pictured above. And suddenly I was seeing my story in a whole new way. I was unprepared for the grief I felt at her loss; it cut deep and hard, and I began to wonder whether I had done those feelings justice in my story. Had I reduced such a painful experience to a mere plot contrivance? Was the death of Kate's dog gratuitous? And on a more pragmatic note, might such a contrivance be a deal-breaker with an editor down the line?

I still don't have answers to these questions. The loss of our Baci is still too new for me to be able to go back to my manuscript and look at those scenes again. But when I am ready, I know I'll be reading it with a different set of eyes.

And now I'd like to ask you: how do you feel about the death of pets in the books you read? Are there animals in your own stories, and if so, what role to they play in your plots?

A Jersey girl born and bred, Rosie Genova left her heart at the shore, which serves as the setting for much of her work. Her new series, the Italian Kitchen Mysteries, is informed by her deep appreciation for good food, her pride in her heritage, and her love of classic mysteries, from Nancy Drew to Miss Marple. Her debut novel, Murder and Marinara, will be released October 1. An English teacher by day and novelist by night, Rosie also writes women’s fiction as Rosemary DiBattista. She lives fifty miles from the nearest ocean  in central New Jersey, with her husband, two of her three sons, and an ill-behaved fox terrier.

The Four Story Pillars (guest post)

Jane's note: I'm very excited today to introduce a guest post by Amy Deardon, author of The Story Template. Her work is the result of an intensive study of successful stories, both movies and novels, breaking them down into their most basic structure and character elements. She took each story and categorized the scenes, timed them (or made note of the page length), noted where and when they occurred, and graphed each story's progress. When she found consistent trends in plot progression and character arc through all these stories, and these elements lacking in stories generally regarded as failures, she combined all this knowledge into her book The Story Template. For more information about her book, you can read my review on my own blog. But for now, I'll turn it over to Amy's discussion of a vital part of story development: the four pillars of your story which will hold up everything that happens in your book. Enjoy!

     

Even if you’re an SOTP (seat of the pants) writer, a little planning before beginning to write can make writing your story easier. I’ll review here a few foundational elements you should know about your story before you start.

The Four Story Pillars

A story (novel or screenplay) is often thought of as having two arms: outer and inner. The outer story covers the external plot: what your friend will summarize when you ask what a story is about. In contrast, the inner story describes the emotional journey of one or more characters. Different types or genres of stories tend to emphasize different arms – for example, a romance or literary work often focuses on inner story, while a mystery or action-adventure usually emphasizes outer story. 

But how else might story be described? If you think about it, a story can also be considered as having two tiers of construction: concrete and abstract. The concrete tier describes the actual events and characters in the story, whereas the abstract tier comments on the broader applications of your story: why it may give insight into society, relationships, or life.

Using these two types of categories, I like to think of the story as having four story pillars. The PLOT is the actual story line with the story goal and external obstacles. The CHARACTER describes the inner emotional journeys of one or more characters. The STORY WORLD describes the specific environment and milieu in which the story takes place. The MORAL describes the theme or the ultimate take-home message that the story conveys.

You can put these four pillars into context, like this:

The STORY PREMISE, which is the fundamental concept that drives the story, comes from just one of these four pillars. For example:

Plot Pillar – Iron Man, Jaws

Character Pillar – Forest Gump, Rocky

Moral Pillar – Facing the Giants, Ender’s Game

Story World Pillar – Fellowship of the Ring, Harry Potter

Although the story centers around one pillar, the other pillars are developed to a greater or lesser extent, even for very unidimensional stories. For example, in the summer 2009 film G.I. Joe, the emphasis is on the OUTER STORY, both the action plot and the cool techno-weapons story world. However, even in such an over-the-top action movie, there is also a rudimentary inner love story of loss and redemption hiding between the bombs and outrageous conspiracy theories.

The more you can develop all four of these pillars, the more resonant and gripping your story will become. Some questions you might ask for each pillar:

PLOT: What is your story question? What is your story goal? What are the stakes of your story (the bad things that will happen if your protagonist doesn’t achieve his goal)? What is the main obstacle (usually the antagonist) blocking your protagonist from reaching his goal? What are some other obstacles?

CHARACTER: Who is your protagonist? What does he want in the story? Does he have a secondary protagonist? (The secondary protagonist works with the protagonist as a team to achieve the story goal, and is often a love interest). What is your protagonist’s “hidden” (emotional) need that will be fixed in the story? Who (or what) is the antagonist? What goals are your protagonist and antagonist competing for?

STORY WORLD: What is the time and place of your story? What are common social customs? What do buildings and structures look like? What do your characters eat, wear, and use? What is the weather like? 

MORAL: What is the ONE universal principal that you want to explore in your story? Some examples of moral might be:

Romeo and Juliet: Great Love Defies Death.

Forest Gump: Unconditional Love Redeems the Rebel.

Fellowship of the Ring: Willingness to Relinquish Power Leads to Preservation.

The Godfather: Family Ties Overcome Individual Virtue.

Rocky: Courage and Persistence Lead to Significance.

The Incredibles: Working Together Allows Each Individual to Shine.

By developing all four of these story pillars, you will establish a strong base for your story to resonate with the reader or viewer. 

---

Amy Deardon is a research scientist who had already written articles, newspaper columns, and other nonfiction when she wanted to write a novel. When getting the words down was more difficult than she anticipated, she undertook a detailed study of how story works. The result is an algorithm published in The Story Template: Conquer Writer's Block Using The Universal Structure Of Story (also available in a print edition.) She's the author of A Lever Long Enough, and has documented her experience of overcoming skepticism with both faith and science at her blog.

Publishing Pulse 2/11/2011

In the Craft of Writing

We all know how important the first page, paragraph, and sentence are to your story. Check out a report on Huffington Post with tips on how to write a killer first sentence.

Alan Rinzler has an excellent article on untangling your plot. He discusses the best practices in storytelling, namely that a story must be engaging, needs focus and depth, and rhythm. He also discusses the merits of writing for a series and breaks down the top genres for multi book deals in 2010.

Worried or wondering about what tense to put your novel in? Agent Mary Kole discusses being tense about tense. She also discusses the reason for not putting your characters in denial.

In Publishing

Author Besty Lerner answers a question about whether or not great books end up not being published.

Agent Kristin Nelson does a question answer post on publishing questions, and what it means if Hollywood wants to option your book. Rachelle Gardner offers a definitive publishing guide as well as defining what it means to sell out, sell through, and earn out.

And finally, Neil Gaiman offers a differing view on book piracy.

Danyelle writes MG and YA fantasy. In her spare time, she collects dragons, talking frogs, and fairy godmothers. She can be found discussing the art of turning one's characters into various animals, painting with words, and the best ways to avoid getting eaten by dragons on her blog. 

Querying The Cliché

Recently I heard a writer complaining that the "rules" for querying were impossible to follow. She pointed out that there are only eight (or twelve, or four) standard plots, and therefore it's ridiculous for agents to issue decrees such as "Don't tell us it's a story of forbidden love: that's cliché." Or "Don't say 'choosing between life and love.' That's overdone."

In effect her question was this: What if your story really is about forbidden love, or about choosing between life and love, or could be quickly described by some other cliché? Are they saying you can't query it?

Of course you can query it. If there are only four (or eight or twelve) standard plots in the world, you can assume there's going to be some repetition.

Therefore it's up to you to do your future literary agent a favor. Assume your future agent goes to  her inbox every day to find a hundred new queries. She's read all the clichés. She wants to find something she'll enjoy, but in order to enjoy your story, she needs something to remember. Something specific.

Remember that a cliché is a shortcut. And when you use one to describe your own work, you're giving only a surface rendering of a story with depth. Work harder. Give it that depth.

It's cliché to say, "Theirs is a forbidden love." Instead you say, "Mom has taken out a restraining order against Tanner, so Emily learns to scale the chimney in order to sneak out at night."

You don't write in your query, "Choosing between life and love," but you do say, "Unless Steve hands over the Omega Stone, the Bertrandians will drop Esmeralda into the vat of boiling oil."

You have to "show-don't-tell" in your query the same way you do in your manuscript.

A coming of age story? No. A teenager whose mother just died, struggling to guide his young brother through their father's emotional absence? Better. A high school dropout choosing between a joyride with his garage band buddies or protecting his ten-year-old brother from their drunken father's rampages? Memorable because we can feel for the characters.

The specifics are the difference between a cliché and a compelling story.  If your future agent really is receiving a hundred queries a week about forbidden love, make it so she remembers yours.

---

Jane Lebak is the author of The Guardian (Thomas Nelson, 1994), Seven Archangels: Annihilation (Double-Edged Publishing, 2008) and The Boys Upstairs(this December from MuseItUp). At Seven Angels, Four Kids, One Family, she blogs about what happens when a distracted daydreamer and a gamer geek attempt to raise four children. She is represented by the amazing Roseanne Wells of the Marianne Strong Literary Agency.

Plot Points and Vanishing Points

Courtesy of onefatman

In order to create a sense of distance in art, artists use something called the vanishing point. This is the point that everything else in the composition is anchored to.

If you look in this picture, all the horizontal lines are oriented to the small circular point just up and off to the side of the third trunk back. This is the vanishing point--where all the lines vanish into the distance.

But what does this have to do with writing, let alone your plot?

Most people pick up a book to get somewhere. And most stories are about that journey, whether the book is plot or character driven, something is happening. (I'm sticking with commercial and genre fiction as I'm not as familiar with literary fiction. Hands out the salt.)


Imagine the specific things that are happening in the story. These are the plot points. Plot points can be either external or internal to the character. Or even better--both. Those points would be the trees spaced out in the picture. These are the major events in the story. This is where the characters discover the body, where the character finds out he or she is the one who will save the world (or universe), where the characters stumble upon the Item of Extreme Importance, where they learn and grow and Things Happen. The vanishing point in literature is The End. And all points lead to it, eventually.


You see the fence post? This is where your parallel and/or subplots go. Do you see how the fence also reaches for the vanishing point? How it flows in tandem with the trees? The only thing that would make this reflect a little more accurately the picture of the story's structure in my head is if the fence intertwined and overlapped with the trees at certain points. Because somewhere, somehow, those points are going to come together, even if just for a brief moment to preserve the cohesive element that lets the reader know that yes, this is all one (or two or three) part(s) of a bigger whole.


Those shrubs down there next to the fence? Those are all the major transition points. Places where the plot ebbs and flows to create a smooth story line. Transition points, in my opinion, are incredibly important and often overlooked, at least overtly. The transition points help move the story along and keep it from going static, or just as bad, jerking hither and thither and giving the reader whiplash. The shrubs, down below the ground where the eye doesn't really see them, have hundreds and hundreds of tiny roots and tendrils curling out in the darkness. Those are the minor transition points. In the story, they fine tune the flow even further until the story glides into a smooth experience. These minor transition points are usually only a sentence or two long, but they can make all the difference in terms of how well a story flows.


The leaves on the ground are all the things happening to the characters--both internal and external--that keeps the story rolling. This is the place where things occur and characters make decisions that will lead them to the next tree over. These are the words that get us from point A to point B. The leaves still clinging to the branches of the trees (our plot points) are things/events/ideas/feelings that are ripening as the story goes along, but aren't quite ready to fall into concrete-absolute-this-just-happened yet. 


And the path is where the reader journeys as they read your story. The words that give the reader a sure footing in your world, let them sense and taste it. See it. Experience it. But without all the other parts--the trees, and shrubs, and fence, and leaves, the path would be a barren place left to moulder on the shelf or tucked back in your subconscious somewhere.


Because the story isn't a collection of words printed on a page. It's a living, breathing thing that burgeons into your reader's life and snatches them away. The words and the paper (or screen) are simply the vehicle to get them there.


And you are the artist.

Danyelle collects dragons, talking frogs, and fairy godmothers in her spare time. She is currently getting ready to query SLIPPERS OF PEARL, a YA fantasy. She also enjoys making new friends, and can be found at http://myth-takes.blogspot.com.

How to Plot (or Revise) Your Book

Are you just starting out writing a book and not sure if you should outline? Or perhaps you’re neck-deep in revisions and in need of guidance.

This nine-step method of unknown origin is perfect for those not-so-good at organizing, or for those who thrive on being neat and tidy. I read about this trick on Cynthia Jaynes Omololu’s blog. (Cynthia is the author of the newly-released Dirty Little Secrets, published by Walker Books. Congrats, Cynthia!) Word has it that this method first appeared on the Verla Kay Message Boards. (I would love to know who invented it!)

9 Steps for Plotting Fiction

Start with a piece of paper. It should be large enough to write on. I used 11x14 just to give me a little more room, but 8x11 is fine. Draw two parallel lines both vertically and horizontally across the page, creating 9 comparable boxes, as if you were starting a game of tic-tac-toe. These boxes represent chapters, scenes, or sections, depending upon your book's intended length.

Number the boxes, starting from the upper left: 1, 2, 3.

Next row, starting from the left: 4, 5, 6.

Last row: 7, 8, 9.

Title each box…

1. Triggering Event

First things first. What happens? Why have you bothered to write a book, and more importantly, why should a reader invest time flipping through its pages? Your triggering event is the answer to these questions, so make it a good one. Also, don't make the reader wait very long for it. First page, first paragraph, first sentence. These are good spots for a triggering event.

2. Characterization

Generally, books succeed or fail on the strength of their characters, more so than on the strength of their plots. Box 2 is where you explore what makes your protagonist tick. No, this isn't an excuse for drawn out exposition, history, or back story. If your triggering event is captivating, the reader will discover enough about the protagonist in Box 2 simply by reading how he or she reacts to the event.

3. First Major Turning Point

By now, your plot is picking up steam, and because of Box 2, the reader is invested in the ride. Time to throw a curve ball. This turning point can be either a positive event for your protagonist, or a negative one, but it should lay the groundwork for the negative turning point in Box 6. There is a reason these boxes are touching one another; they interrelate. For example, Box 3 may introduce the motivation of the antagonist, which then justifies the events in Box 6.

4. Exposition

You've earned some time to fill the reader in on important data. Since this box touches Box 1, here's where you shed some light on that triggering event. Since it also touches Box 7, you get to foreshadow your pro-tagonist's darkest hour. Box 4 often reveals a relationship, character flaw, or personal history that contributes to the dark times ahead.

5. Connect the Dots

Here is where many plots fall apart. Box 5 represents the trickiest part of fiction, and since it is the center of the diagram (and book) it must connect to all the boxres around it. (2, 4, 6, & 8.) Kind of like the nucleus at the center of a bomb, Box 5 should tick systematically upon elements introduced in Boxes 2 and 4. And like the calm before the storm, Box 5 should give the false impression of resolution before heading like a freight train to Box 6. Most importantly, it needs to provide foreshadowing for the protagonist's revelation in Box 8. That's a lot for a little box to do, but focus on efficient prose to get it right. Your plot depends upon it.

6. Negative Turning Point

Here's where that bomb explodes and all (word censored) breaks loose. Good thing you laid the groundwork in Box 3. Good thing, too, that Box 9 will deliver some just desserts.

7. Antagonist Wins

The protagonist is defeated here, and the antagonist apparently wins. How the protagonist deals with the darkest hour of defeat depends upon the traits and/or story developed in Box 4, which leads to his or her revelation in the next square.

8. Revelation

Of course! The protagonist's revelation turns the tide. Here is where the protagonist connects the dots and overcomes the obstacles of Boxes 6 and 7 via the device introduced in Box 5.

9. Protagonist Wins

The negative turning point in Box 6 is rectified while the character's resolve from Box 8 is brought into full bloom. Congratulations! Another great tale told greatly.

This method has worked very well for me. I taped two 8x11 sheets together, folded it into nine squares, then printed the above text and cut each step out, taping it into the squares. Instant poster. Next I taped two more 8x11 sheets together, made 9 squares, and IN PENCIL wrote down my plot points. Voila! Instant plot map, easy as pie.

What about you - have you used this method before? Or is there another method that you depend on?

*Special thanks to Plot This, Katie Anderson's and Sarah Frances Hardy’s blog, for pointing me in the right direction.

Plot Vs. Character

I’ve heard this tossed around many times. It seems pretty self-explanatory, but I think it makes for interesting discussion, as well as author-reflection on what it is you’re trying to accomplish with your novel.

So here we go.

Plot-Driven stories: Action drives the story forward. The characters get swept up in this action, becoming mere participants as they are placed in various situations. The plot itself impacts the characters, their beliefs, and drives them to development.

Genre novels are very likely to be plot-driven. They may involve a main event such as defeating the bad guy, getting away from newly engineered dinosaurs (name that movie!) or finding a path to the fiery mountain to destroy the ring. The main focus in a plot-driven novel: get out of danger. Stay alive. Accomplish something.

In such a novel, there usually isn’t much time for your characters to reflect on how they feel about their tasks. This doesn’t mean they shouldn’t. It just means you as the author must find a way to infuse enough emotion into the action to make the reader interested and keep them reading until they feel a connection to the character. Because, after all, characters are the reason we read.

Characters are endless in their possibilities (something plot is not). This is where the author has an opportunity to make their readers feel something. Make connections. Become an active participant in the novel. So let’s move on to the character-driven novel.

Character-Driven stories: In the character-driven novel, the protag's thoughts, decisions, and coming to some greater understanding drive the story from beginning to end. These things are more important than the action. In a character-driven story, the author builds the plot around the character. As they develop, so does the plot. Notice that. The plot doesn’t develop the character, making them choose between Hard Thing A and Even Harder Thing B. It’s quite the opposite. The character develops in some way, and that in turn advances the plot.

That said, I think creating characters is one of the most important aspects of fiction writing. (See Mary’s post from Monday for some techniques to do this.) We read fiction because we’re looking for something. What? Ourselves. (Feel free to tell me what you’re looking for when you read fiction.) Fantastic plot-driven novels can be riveting, but the stories we’re sucked into are those in which we feel a connection with the characters. Do we understand them? Sympathize with them? Connect to them?

Ultimately, do you see yourself in the character? That’s when the real truth comes out.

So which is better?

The best stories have elements of both. Good fiction grabs the reader with thrilling things happening to people we care about. An author must combine both, so that there is plenty of action intermingled with moments where your characters stand in the spotlight.

Questions to ask yourself:
1. What is the force propelling your story from beginning to end? Is it the characters or what they’re going through?
2. Am I more interested in the story? Or the people within in the story?
3. What do you remember about your favorite books? The plot? Or are the characters what make the story stand out in your mind?
4. Are you a heavy outliner of events? (Plot = important) Or do you focus on character development and allow them to move the action forward? (Character-driven)

In summary, a plot-driven story focuses on action while a character-driven one places the emphasis on emotion and reflection. So you tell me: which focus is better? Or are they equally important? What kind of author are you?

Your Medical Fiction Questions Answered

Got a burning medical question to give your novel authenticity? As in my previous Medical Fiction post, I'll be answering a couple of medical writing questions today.

Disclaimer: The information provided in this post is intended for writing purposes only and does not represent medical advice. (Sorry, my lawyer-boy husband made me say that.)

First, from Stina:

Hi Heather,

I have a medical question dealing with something my character goes through in my novel.

The seventeen year old starts to have heavy uterine bleeding. Now there’s no real medical reason for it (fantasy element to the novel), but I was wondering what kinds of tests they would run in the hospital and as an outpatient. Also, in what kind of time frame would they occur? She is unconscious when admitted. She isn’t pregnant, though her friends thought she was, and thought she was suffering a miscarriage. She loses a fair amount of blood (nothing life-threatening but it is serious), and is hospitalized. The bleeding doesn’t last for long and it doesn’t start up again. How long would she be hospitalized for? Other than pain killers (she was in immense pain when she passed out), would she be on any other medication?

Thanks for your insights. It’s greatly appreciated.

Stina

Well, your character's friends were definitely right to consider pregnancy (and not just miscarriage, but also ectopic pregnancy) as a possible explanation. But there are a lot of other issues to consider. Creating a list of possible explanations for a patient's symptoms is called a differential diagnosis, and this one would be fairly long, so it's easier to break down by category.

1. OB including pregnancy, miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy

2. Gyne including polycystic ovary syndrome, cervical or endometrial polyps, endometriosis

3. Infectious including sexual transmitted diseases such as chlamydia or gonorrhea

4. Endocrine (hormones) including hypothyroidism or diabetes, as well as any number of issues with the various hormones that control the menstrual cycle.

5. Bleeding disorders including clotting disorders such as Von Willebrand, platelet problems such as ITP. This could also include overdoses or exposure to medications that affect clotting, such as aspirin, warfarin (commonly found in rat poison), etc. Liver disease could also lead to bleeding disorders.

6. Cancers including cervical cancer, leukemia

7. Trauma (such as due to rape or rough sex play with damaging objects)

Now, the fact that she's unconscious when she comes in complicates things quite a bit. Why is she unconscious? Because of the blood loss? Because of the supernatural element at work? If she was really unconscious due to blood loss, she probably wouldn't be out for very long... a few seconds to a minute maybe. And she would respond quickly to things like IV fluid and medications that raise blood pressure. If she'd lost enough blood to be out longer than that, she'd be coding... i.e. she'd stop breathing, heart might stop, etc. If she was unconscious and not actively coding, she would at least buy herself a CT scan presenting this way, because uterine bleeding doesn't explain unconsciousness in a patient with relatively stable vital signs.

To evaluate a patient like this, the doctors would most likely obtain bloodwook to check the level of bleeding that had already occurred, to see the response her body had to the blood loss (i.e. was her body working hard to replace the loss? Had it been going on for a long time?) and to check her ability to clot. This would also serve as a screening test for leukemia, and they would want a pathologist to look at the blood smear to look for abnormal cells. Other bloodwork would probably be done to check hormone levels.

A pregnancy test would be an absolute must.

Once she regained consciousness, they would ask her a detailed history regarding her sexual activity, drug use, prior STD's, etc.

They would do a speculum exam, looking for lesions on the cervix (cuts, warts, polyps, etc.) and test her for GC/Chlamydia

Assuming they didn't find any specific source for the bleeding or infection/cancer to treat, they

would probably assume this was related to hormone balance and would start her on progesterone or birth control pills to regulate her bleeding.

Naturally, if she lost enough blood to have symptoms (meaning she's extremely fatigued, out of breath, etc. from the blood loss) they would have to transfuse her. But they would be very cautious about doing that... uterine blood loss in an otherwise healthy adolescent patient is extremely unlikely to reach a fatal level, and in addition to the risks associated with a transfusion, giving blood products would make some of the blood tests invalid. Unless it was a real emergency, they would at least be sure they'd obtained all the bloodwork before transfusing.

If her pain was well-controlled, she was otherwise well, she would probably be discharged a day after the bleeding stopped.

Hope that's helpful, Stina. Thanks for pitching in your question!

Our next question comes from Kathleen:

Hi, Heather! First, let me commend you and the other QT ladies and
Patrick on what you're doing with the blog. It's a must-read for me
daily. :-)

I have a medical question for you about stitching wounds:

In a contemporary wilderness setting, a man falls and bangs his head
on a rock -- hard enough to knock him out and leave a significant gash
through his eyebrow. Would a veterinarian who is reluctant to do
anything at all (for thoroughly non-medical reasons) stitch the wound
two or three days later (the first opportunity she has), or would the
gash have healed enough on its own by then to make stitching a waste
of time (or too difficult to attempt unless one is a plastic surgeon)?
The injured man won't be getting to a hospital in the foreseeable
future. In fact, he and the vet are trapped in the wilderness, but the
vet has her medical bag with her.

I realize there are concussion and cosmetic issues. The concussion is
dealt with, and appearances aren't a concern. I'm just curious how a
dedicated medical professional, even though she doesn't treat humans,
might approach the injury. (I'm also curious to know whether I've used
enough parenthetical remarks in this email. Cuz, yanno, I can add some
if not. :-D )

Thanks for any insight you can provide! And thanks to both of you QT
docs for offering to provide medical insight. I hope both of you
realize what a boon that is to your fellow writers. :-)

Best,
Kathleen

Aw, gee, shucks, Kathleen. Thanks!

Yours is a fairly straightforward question to answer. At the time frame you mention, stitches would not be indicated. A wound needs to be stitched as soon as possible after the injury. This is not just to help with healing and the cosmetic appearance, but a stitch represents material that is foreign to the body. Any foreign body has a chance of getting infected under the best of circumstances, but a wound left to its own devices for several days would be far from clean. Passing a suture through the wound and under the skin would be introducing pockets of infection and giving them a nice place to thrive.

And, yes, by three days, the wound would probably be fairly well healed on its own (the eyebrow area doesn't have a lot of room for a deep gash, so I assume it's shallow enough to have scabbed over by this time.

So, your veterinarian is off the hook!

Thanks for a great question!

Big to Kathleen and Stina!

And if you have a medical fiction question, you can still email me for future posts. My email address is in the sidebar.

Familiarity Breeds Authenticity

Even though I write paranormal fiction that contains elements far outside the realm of possibility, it is essential that I make the story believable.  I increase believability by grounding my stories in settings with which I am familiar.  This familiarity breeds authenticity.  

My novel, SOUL PURPOSE, centers around a girl who can intervene on behalf of hindered spirits and help them find resolution to the problems that keep them earth-bound.  I set the story in Houston and Galveston Island, Texas--two places with which I am familiar.  The Texas Gulf Coast was perfect because I needed ghosts for my story.  Part of the plot centers around The Great Storm of 1900.  8-10 thousand people died in that storm.  Plenty of ghosts!

The research was a blast.  I took my kids to Galveston Island and we explored.  After visiting a museum dedicated to The Storm, we found the perfect cemetery, hotel, and restaurant for my book.  Once again, familiarity breeds authenticity.  

My century-old story world came roaring to life (with a little too much authenticity, thank you) last September in the form of a hurricane named Ike.  Ike was similar in intensity to The Storm of 1900.  Fortunately, we now have radar, satellites, radio and television to warn us that entire communities may be swept away.  No such system existed in 1900 when my book takes place.  

The effect of Hurricane Ike was similar to The Storm of 1900, but the death rate was negligible thanks to modern technology.  I've been through several hurricanes in my lifetime, but this one made the others look, feel, sound and smell like babies in comparison.  I sat hunkered in my boarded-up house experiencing some of the same terror my characters endured.  I can't wait to finish my sequel.  Talk about Familiarity!  

Show and tell time!

It shocked me how similar the pictures of the devastation from The Great Storm of 1900 and Hurricane Ike are.  I got witness first-hand my story world from 108 years earlier.  Here are a couple of examples of then and now.  They are frighteningly parallel.  

Surveying the damage on wheels 2008 and 1900: 

Searching through the debris 2008 and 1900: 

Whether you set your book in your hometown or outer space, try to find an element that is familiar to both you and the reader.  Familiarity breeds authenticity. (You just knew I was going to say that again, didn't you?)  

Have a great weekend, everybody.

Mary

Mary Lindsey writes paranormal fiction for children and adults. Prior to attending University of Houston Law School, she received a B.A. in English Literature with a minor in Drama.

Mary can also be found on her website.

To Improve Your Craft, Take a Trip Back to Sixth Grade

I'm going to go all teacher on you for a few minutes. I've been teaching for nearly a decade and have been grading the Direct Writing Assessment for the past eight years. Without causing a drastic snooze-fest, basically, the DWA is a state-wide persuasive writing assignment for 6th and 9th graders.

As a scorer, I have to go through 20 hours of training. After eight years, I have that puppy memorized. Enter Mr. J (my darling hubby). He teaches 6th grade. Here's some word math for you: 6th grade writing assessment + professional DWA scorer = I grade my husband's essays. Oh, and the other 6th grade teacher's essays. And whoever will pay me to grade their essays.

This past weekend as I was slogging through the assignments, it occurred to me that I can use these 6 traits in my fiction writing. Why this concept had not struck me before, I don't know. But it was sort of an epiphany for me. So without further ado, let's board that time machine and go back to sixth grade. Strap yourselves in, I've seen sixth graders--and they are wild.

The Six Traits of Writing – A Way to Improve Your Craft.

Trait 1: Ideas and Content

In persuasive writing, this is where the student must convince me that their side is right. In fiction, this is your plot. Your subplots. What happens in your book. The conflicts, the characters, the events. You have to write them well enough to convince me to keep reading, to care about your characters and what happens to them. This is where you show off your interesting and original idea. This is a biggie, I know, but it's only the first thing. Even great ideas don't get off the ground without the other five traits.

Trait 2: Organization

In the DWA, I watch for transitions, paragraphing, and if the writing follows a logical sequence. But most of all I read for a beginning that grabs my attention and an ending that sums up the main idea. How is this any different from fiction? It's so not. Authors agonize over their first sentence, the first page, the first chapter. You want your beginning to grab the attention of agents and readers. And how many of you have read a book that didn't leave you satisfied? That you felt just wasn't enough, or else it went on forever? This is all part of how you organize your novel.

Trait 3: Voice

This is another big one. In persuasive writing, I first check to see if the writer addresses the appropriate audience. You may not talk directly to your audience in fiction writing, but your audience should be reflected in your point of view character. For example, young adult characters should narrate young adult novels. In fact, one of the bullets in the rubric under voice is: "The writer's point of view is clear."

I also watch for a unique, personal touch to the piece. This is no different for fiction. Agent upon agent has blogged about voice. The voice in the query letter, the voice of the writing.

This is where I usually draw a mental line when I'm scoring. The first three traits are all about the overall piece of writing. I normally don't break things down sentence by sentence to see if the ideas, the organization or the voice are "working." It's based on the piece of writing as a whole. The next three traits, though, are more technical. More nitty. They are how you make the first three traits work as a whole. Does that make sense? Well, keep reading and maybe it will.

Trait 4: Word Choice

While scoring essays, I look for the use of everyday words. Are they used well? You're looking to express your ideas with strong and precise language. Little or no repetition. Fresh verbs. You want to create a picture in the reader's mind with the words you choose. Oftentimes when I am critiquing someone's writing, I'll come across a word that just doesn't seem right. The meaning is usually clear, but the word choice is off. Watch every word, and make it count.

Trait 5: Sentence Fluency

In the persuasive essay, I look for how sentences start and stop. The length and structure should vary. Not all sentences should begin the same way. Going back to Mary's fantastic post on reading aloud, when I'm struggling to decide which score to give a paper in Sentence Fluency, I'll read it out loud. One of the bulleted items in the rubric is: "The writing has a natural flow when read aloud." Can't be more clear than that.

Trait 6: Conventions

This is, well, the conventions. Spelling, grammar, punctuation, paragraphing. I know we have a post coming up on the proper use of quotes, so be on the lookout for that. For fiction, I think the obvious thing here is: has your writing been proofread and edited? It's pretty easy to see when it hasn't. Don't get me wrong, everyone makes typos. But I've participated in enough critique groups to know who's posting something they've edited several times and who's just throwing up what they wrote last night. You can learn to self-edit your own work, or join a critique group if you feel like you can't. (More on that from me later. I know you'll all be on the edge of your seats!)

Well, this concludes the trip back to sixth grade. Climb aboard the time machine, people, I highly doubt any of you actually want to go back to being 12. But hopefully, these six traits of writing will help you improve your novel now, and the writing you do in the future.

By the way, if you care, you can download your own copy of the rubric I use to grade the DWA. Click here and scroll down to "DWA Related Links" (in the middle column). Click on "Scoring Rubric." I could recite it for you...but, well, I won't.