Tag Archives: writing

The Plot Versus Character Conundrum

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So I’ve been thinking about something. When my friends and I talk about books or movies or TV shows, why do we almost never mention plot? For the most part, we only talk about characters—who was brave, who was sweet, who was strong, who was deliciously wicked or witty or angst-ridden. We don’t talk much about plot. If we do, it’s only in relation to what a specific moment revealed about the characters. “Oh man, that character was so cool when they did [x]!”

A lot of my favorite stories are criticized for not having much in the way of plot, or for a plot that drags too much. Take Game of Thrones, for example. I’ve heard multiple people say that A Song of Ice and Fire barely has a plot, that all George R. R. Martin does is write about interesting people who bump into each other and interact in unusual (and often bizarre or dramatic) ways. But the fans love it! We don’t care about tight plotting; we just want to find out what Arya or Tyrion or Daenerys or Jon Snow will do next. Because they’re fascinating characters, and we like them, and we love to watch interesting personalities collide.

As a story fan, I guess don’t care much about plot, per se. For me, character trumps everything else. And it seems like that holds true for most of my fellow story geeks. A story with a tense plot or exciting premise might catch my attention, but I’ll never fall in love with it unless it has an emphasis on character—specifically, on character interaction and character development. Maybe this is why some “page turners” don’t stick with me, or fail to catch my attention at all.

Honestly, this is a conundrum for writers. We are often told to write as tightly as possible, to cut any character interaction that isn’t essential to the main plot. It’s not bad advice, far from it. The last thing you want as a writer is to bore your readers, and risk losing their interest. But according to that rule, most of my favorite moments from books should have been shortened, or cut entirely.

In the end, this isn’t an “either/or” situation. A story can have an exciting plot and plenty of character interaction. One of the best solutions at a writer’s disposal is to combine the two. When a story focuses on interesting characters who make choices, and those choices reveal something about them, their character development becomes the plot. Often, boring stories are boring because they fail to connect plot and character, not because they need more of either element.

Still, this subject does give me pause when I write. I often wonder if I’ve included enough interaction between my characters, if I’ve revealed enough about them as individuals to catch the interest and affection of a reader like me. Ultimately, I try to write what I love to read—and to do it as efficiently and effectively as possible, without removing every fun moment from the story altogether.

And when in doubt, writers can always go for the Joss Whedon method. Just make your characters witty enough that no matter how action-packed the plot gets, the story has plenty of humorous dialogue that reveals what the characters really think about each other…

Story Structure – The Key to a Novel

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I’ve been thinking a lot about how to write a novel. Specifically, the prewriting stage—how to research, how to outline, how to create characters. These days, I view prewriting as the most important part of my process. If I do enough work before I start to write, my drafts are solid. If I don’t, the manuscript will need more revision later on. (Sometimes a lot more. As in, a complete rewrite from beginning to end. Which is not fun, let me tell you!)

So what is the most important part of prewriting? For me, it’s story structure. That’s what I call the central arc of a novel. Story structure is not world-building or plotting. It guides the plot, and shapes it—but it’s much bigger than that.

Story structure looks something like this…

My protagonist wants [fill in a goal or desire].

To achieve [that goal or desire], they will [a list of actions the protagonist takes during the story to get what they want; the more specific the better].

When they take these actions, the protagonist will encounter the following obstacles or complications: ____________________________________.

At the story’s climax, the protagonist achieves [the goal or desire] by doing this: [one final action].

Bonus question: The protagonist would not have been able to take that final action earlier in the novel, because ________________________________.

Those are the fundamentals of story structure. Some people call it different things (the protagonist’s arc, etc.), and I’ve seen other ways to chart it. But more or less, that’s what it looks like. As you can see, it’s pretty basic! Why is this important?

Story structure is the skeleton of your novel. If you do it right, this structure should guide everything your protagonist does—which in turn determines how other characters react to them. It also helps ensure that your novel has a satisfying conclusion. Readers like to see protagonists achieve what they set out to do at the start of the story (or not achieve it, if your story is a tragic one!).

I’ve also found that this structure is helpful for keeping me on track while I’m drafting. If I start to feel lost, I just go back to my notes about what my protagonist wants. It helps me decide what they should do next—whether or not that action makes sense for them, and whether or not it helps achieve their goal. Which means story structure can help me avoid these mistakes:

  • Having my protagonist do something that doesn’t make sense, because it doesn’t match up with their goals/desires.
  • Writing a scene that doesn’t advance the story in any way.

In other words, story structure helps me decide what’s “in character” for my protagonist, and whether or not a scene is needed. It really helps cut down on revision time! If I plan this structure out in advance, I don’t have to cut as many scenes, and I don’t have rewrite them to better fit the protagonist’s motives.

That’s why I think story structure, more than anything else, is the key to writing a good novel. A story is a series of events. A well-written story is one in which those events are driven primarily by the protagonist’s desires, all leading up to a climax where the protagonist achieves (or doesn’t achieve!) what they want.

Well, that’s it for now. I plan to add a second part later on, with a few tips and examples. But I hope this is a helpful starting point, for any aspiring novelists out there. If you would like to explore the topic in more detail, I highly recommend Wired For Story by Lisa Cron. I’ve read a lot of books about writing in the past five years. This is one of the few that teaches how to write on a story level, and the advice is essential (yet so easy to understand that I wondered why I hadn’t heard much of it sooner).

Do You Hear the People Sing?

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Warning: This is a blog post about Les Misérables. I can’t seem to write about Les Mis without rivers of praise gushing forth from my keyboard, so… Well, all I can say is that I tried to reign myself in.

Les Misérables Program

My program from the production!

Two weeks ago, I had the chance to see the restaged version of Les Misérables. It is, without reservation, my favorite musical. It’s one of my favorite novels as well—if not the favorite, which is a risky thing to say as an English Lit major. (Pick my favorite book, you say? That’s impossible! There are far too many books in the world, too many stories to love.)

Still, despite all the competition, Les Misérables stands out to me. I first fell in love with it during my junior year of high school. The novel is sweeping, sentimental, and unabashedly spiritual in scope. The characters are so iconic they seem like something out of legend or myth, rather than part of a book penned only two hundred years ago. The redemptive quest of Jean Valjean, the convict who spends nineteen years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread, is the kind of epic narrative that is impossible to forget.

Victor Hugo is a role model for me, both as a writer and as a human being. His writing practically bleeds compassion, which I admire even more than his keen grasp of human psychology or his eloquent turn of phrase. During my senior year of high school, I chose the following quote of his to inscribe under my photo in the yearbook: “To love another person is to see the face of God.”

Needless to say, his work has a great deal of personal resonance for me. So as I sat in the theater two weeks ago, watching a gorgeous dramatization of one of my favorite stories, I remembered how much I loved it, and why. I also realized something new, something that surprised me. In many ways, Les Misérables is the standard against which I measure myself as a writer.

I will never write a novel as classic and beloved as Les Mis, of course. I’m no Victor Hugo, no literary genius or visionary. But I will say that when I set out to create a story, I am most satisfied when I attempt to include the following elements:

-A large cast of characters, each one as layered and sympathetic as possible

-A setting in which time and place connect closely with the plot

-A plot concerned with large-scale events and themes (Hugo writes about love, politics, poverty, war, and the salvation of the soul, just to name a few!)

-A story in which profound tragedy occurs, including but not limited to death

And…

-A story in which every event, character, and place could symbolize something deeper than the literal narrative—a story, in other words, which deals with archetypes and our cultural/mythological heritage as human beings

More than any other work of literature, Les Misérables taught me to value these qualities in storytelling. Honestly, any novel that aims for less tends to seem a little insignificant by comparison. I mean, if your characters aren’t dying bravely for a lost cause on top of a barricade of broken furniture, well then, what’s all the fuss about?

In all seriousness, though, Les Misérables taught me to think on a larger-than-life scale when I write. After all, what’s the point if I don’t push myself to convey the most important and interesting ideas I can? When I look at the list in this post, I realize just how far my own stories fall short of this goal. Not every novel can be a literary epic, and truthfully, not every novel should be. But Victor Hugo’s masterpiece motivates me to always aim higher. As the saying goes, even if we miss the moon, we may very well land among the stars.

On that note, I would like to conclude by embedding the trailer for the movie version of the Les Misérables musical, which comes out in December. Not because it relates to my post in any meaningful way, but just because I’m near-delirious with excitement (and this trailer gives me chills, every time!):

In Which the Wayward Writer Resumes Her Blog

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Some of my reading lately!

Has it really been seven months since I last posted? That’s hard to believe. I spent the previous week debating what sort of thing I ought to write here, after such a long (and mostly unplanned) absence. I even began a terribly serious essay about birthday goals and the inevitable passage of time and all sorts of philosophical contemplations. Then I remembered that I’m only capable of so many serious sentiments per day before I realize how boring I sound, and decided to scrap it.

So here is the gist of that entry, minus the lengthy musing…

Two weeks ago, I turned twenty-six. The number still seems a bit surreal, since I feel the same as I did when I was in college. All in all, though, I’m reasonably satisfied with what I’ve accomplished in the past few years.

But I also realized how much more I want to do, especially when it comes to writing. So I drew up a few goals for myself. I now have a reading schedule, which means I’ll be reading more books—and that’s a relief, because aspiring writers need to read the same way we need oxygen. Published books help us to remember that yes, it is possible to write a whole bunch of sentences that eventually come together to make a beautiful story, and yes, it is important to have fun with your work and create something you love. Other writers have managed to do it, and so can we! (If that sounds obvious, and also a bit pathetic, that’s only because it is.)

I’ve also resolved to be more diligent about blogging. So from now on, I hope to post here on a bi-weekly basis. It will be nice to write something without having to watch how many adverbs I use. (Although my inner editor has become so particular that I’ll probably end up deleting most of them anyway!)

As for what happened in my absence, I’m afraid don’t have much to report on the writing front. It was a long and busy spring, during which I finished another revision of my current novel, followed by a difficult summer. I received a manuscript request from my dream agency, followed by a rejection with surprisingly positive feedback—which I took as a good sign. Later, I received the most brutal critique of my first ten pages that I’ve had to date, from a very different source. So like many writers, I’ve had a mixed bag of feedback so far. I don’t know what will happen next, but in the meantime, I’ve been brainstorming new projects and tweaking old ones.

I do have happier things to report, mostly involving the SCBWI Summer 2012 Conference in L.A., where I got the chance to hang out with my incredible critique partner Kourtney Heintz. But I’ll save those thoughts for another entry. In the meantime, I’m glad to be back, and I’m hopeful that the next twelve months will be productive and positive ones.

SCBWI Conference Report: The Power of Self-Definition

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Hello, everyone! I have a guest post today over at Kourtney Heintz’s blog, with my thoughts on one of the keynote speeches at the SCBWI 2012 Winter Conference in New York City. Those who follow me on Twitter know I was lucky enough to attend this conference two weeks ago. It was an amazing experience, so I also wanted to post my general impressions of the trip on this blog.

Swag from the conference!

I have to admit, I don’t always think of myself as an aspiring author. I’ve been writing stories since I was in elementary school, but my goal to become a professional writer is a recent one. So when I signed up for the conference, I was nervous. I even reserved a spot in the Writers’ Roundtable, where the first two pages of my manuscript would be critiqued by professional editors—as well as my fellow writers. Which meant strangers would be reading my work. Talented strangers with OPINIONS, most of which I assumed would be negative. I spent the night before my flight to New York having a nervous breakdown—and rewriting the first two paragraphs of my story from scratch.

Well, you can probably guess how this story ends. The conference was wonderful. Having my manuscript critiqued (and marked up by senior editors from Random House and G.P. Putnam’s Sons!) was a privilege and a great help. The attendees at my table complimented my work, which was a pleasant surprise. But more importantly, I had a great time. I met writers from around the country, brilliant people who understood the joy of storytelling and the frustration of revising and the pain of rejection. I read several promising manuscripts, and heard advice from some of the greatest professionals in the children’s book industry… Professionals who had a hand in publishing Harry Potter and Goosebumps and The Babysitter’s Club. Professionals who, in other words, were directly responsible for a good portion of my childhood.

I also went to see Seminar, a witty and provocative play about writing. It starred Alan Rickman as a sharp-tongued teacher of the craft. (Hilarious, and appropriate after a day of critiques! Also, ALAN RICKMAN. Enough said.) On the last day of the conference, Cassandra Clare signed my copy of Clockwork Prince. She asked what kind of stories I wrote, and I was able to thank her for writing a Victorian fantasy series.

Fan art for Leanna!

I gave this fan art to Leanna on Sunday. The characters are from her gorgeous YA novel Darker Still. She even posted it on her blog!

Best of all, I spent Sunday afternoon with my favorite author, Leanna Renee Hieber. I tend to gush about Leanna, because I am hopelessly in love with her books. (I recommend them to everyone I know. Since you are visiting my blog, that now includes you!) She is also extremely kind and generous. She showed me around the East Village, which I had never visited, and we discussed our latest projects. To talk about writing with my favorite author not only as a fan, but as a fellow creator, was the most thrilling experience in my career to date.

So what I learned from my first SCBWI conference was this: If you want to be an author, treat yourself like one. Go to conferences, and network like any other professional. Introduce yourself, and be brave. Open yourself up to criticism. Talk about writing. Put your money where your dream is. Get a website. Make some business cards. Join a writing organization like SCBWI and make friends. I know these things aren’t easy to do, especially for introverted people like me. So why do I recommend them so heartily?

Simple. Because I did them, and wonderful things happened. Things I only dreamed were possible, things I never really dared to imagine.

So did I get discovered by an agent or editor at my first SCBWI conference? No, I didn’t, but I’m not disappointed in the least. Instead, I learned something important, something I should have known from the start: I am a writer. I already am the person I want so badly to become. Knowing that, I will do whatever it takes to realize my dream, no matter how long the wait. I hope you won’t hesitate to do the same, whenever opportunity crosses your path.

Now, back to another round of revisions!