Story Arcs

Perhaps you've heard of the story arc.  Basically, this involves a beginning, then an introduction of conflict; the conflict builds until it reaches a climax (the point of highest drama/emotion), which is resolved, the drama settles, and there is a conclusion.

That's how any story works, but it turns out within the larger arc, there are lots of little arcs.  Every chapter, every scene should have a beginning, middle, and end, and should slowly build the drama.

As I mentioned in the last post, my creative writing professor, Cheri Earl, said you should begin each scene a little late, so you start in the middle of the action, and end it a little early, leaving the reader with enough suspense to keep going.  She also said each chapter should build conflict to the end.  In some way or other, each scene needs to complicate things (and as I've mentioned before, this needs to be due to the characters' choices), and the conclusion leads to the next scene, where there are more complications.

That means you shouldn't have all the conflict at the very beginning of your story, or there will be nowhere to go up.  It will be a downward slope instead of an arc that holds the reader's attention.

However, it is good to hint at the main conflict in the first or second chapter of your novel, or near the beginning of your short story.  Your reader should understand what the point of your book is, though not necessarily know everything that's going to happen.  That would be boring.

That goes for any part of your book.  If you're on Chapter Ten of Thirty, but you have so much conflict in it that Chapters Eleven through Twenty don't build the plot anymore, then you need to either save some of the drama in Ten for later or make Eleven through Twenty more interesting.  The latter is probably best.

Based on all this, below is a revised story arc (sorry you can't read it very well).  There's the basic beginning, rising action, climax, denouement, and conclusion.  Between the beginning and climax, there's an arc for each chapter or scene.  The ending of each scene has slightly less drama than the climax of said scene, but more than the beginning of it.  That doesn't mean it's the end of a chapter, though; it's okay to end a chapter with drama heightening lines like, "Everything went dark," or, "But the man behind me wasn't my dad."  This is because while you've ended one scene, you're basically opening another with final sentences like this.  Beware of being cliche when you do this, however.

Also, notice that the denouement is fast, which is why I've drawn such a steep falling action.  Once you've gotten past the climax, the ending should be just in sight.  Finally, the conclusion of the main story has greater emotion than at the beginning, because the main character(s) should have learned something and should be a different person.

As you follow the main story arc, remember all the little arcs that make it up.

Beginning

The starting line can be the hardest part of the race.
(Photo by tableatny).

Alright, we've gone over some basics, and now it's time for you to actually write this thing.  You sit down at your desk, turn on your computer, and put your fingers on the keys.

And you have no idea where to begin.

Okay, calm down, I'm going to help you.  The start of any story is often the hardest.  Here's what helps me: first, don't worry about how terrible your rough draft is.  You won't get anywhere if you're afraid of writing something horrible.  Just accept that this draft is not going to be good, and that you can fix it later.

Second, think of just one thing to talk about.  Anne Lamott calls this a one-inch picture frame.  You just have to write enough to fill up that tiny frame.  Sometimes I feel overwhelmed with the task ahead, but if I can think of one little thing to talk about (what the character is thinking about, what the character looks like, what she sees out the window), I get on a roll and write for hours.

Third, write dribble.  Often I can't figure out what to say and nothing comes to me, so I just type words that come to my mind.  Usually I start with something like, "Lilly ate the dog.  There was no particualr reason."  I don't know why, but this helps.  Either I eventually think of something sensible and delete the meaningless paragraphs, or my dribble actually turns onto an interesting plotline and I follow it.

That's really what helps me the most.  If you can power through your mini writer's block and get at least a couple of sentences down (whether or not they make any sense) you can usually think of more.  Maybe there's a creative part of our brains that gets kinked up and we just need to write for a while to get it straightened out. 

If you're in the middle of a book and you're not sure what to say next, some people recommend skipping ahead to a part you do know.  Personally, I have never found this helpful.  For one, I prefer discovery writing; that is, while I have some idea of the basic plot, I let things come as they want to.  If I move ahead and then later return to the chapter I skipped, I have to force it to lead into the next section I already wrote instead of letting it come naturally.  For another, if I found the earlier section hard to write before, I'll certainly still find it hard after I do the other sections, and I may never return to it.  It's better to just make myself put something down in the first place and then fix it later if I don't like it rather than skipping.  But that's a personal preference.

Last thing: if you're just starting a book or story, you have to figure out where to begin.  In other words, how should you introduce your audience to your story?  You've probably heard of in medias res, or in the midst of things.  You should treat every scene, including the first, like a party: show up fashionably late, leave just a little early.  That's what my professor, Cheri Earl, said.  Start in the middle of the action, and then end the scene in a way that is conclusive, but leaves the reader wanting more. 

Honestly, start whereever you want to, but don't be surprised if during the second draft you cut paragraphs and even pages of text from the beginning in order to get into the action faster.  We'll talk about this some more next time when we discuss story arcs.

The Moral of the Story

So, everyone knows your story needs to have a theme, or moral.  A novel has to have a point, some idea you want to get across to your reader.  Well, as it turns out, good writing isn't really about that.

I always assumed that for a book to be worth its binding, it had to teach you something.  And it should, but it shouldn't be so obvious that it's screaming in your ear and kicking you in the gut.  Jerome Stern says in his book, Making Shapely Fiction, that in a good story "the experience is primary, not the message" (68).  I was a little shocked when I read that.  I'd always believed that everything should revolve around one idea, which is the theme.  When I was in High School and wrote book reports, I had to say, in a single sentence, what the book was about, and it was always in the form of a thesis.  "Stealing is bad," "We should share," "If you do good things, good things will come back to you."  Apparently, that's not how it should be.

Ah Hamlet.  So conflicted.
(Photo by Phil Kalina for Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens)

Take Shakespeare.  Hamlet has been called the greatest thing ever written, but what is the theme of that play?  Can you boil it down to just one idea?  That's why it's so amazing: it's about lots of things.  And if it answers any questions, it raises just as many.  According to Jerome Stern, that's what good writing does, especially the older your audience is.  If you write for little kids, yes, you should have a pretty obvious moral.  As you move up through Middle Grade, Young Adult, and Adult literature, the central theme becomes less and less apparent, and there are more uncertainties.

But, if you're not trying to say something in your novel or short story, there isn't much reason to write it, or for anyone to read it.  So there's a balance; you need to be exploring issues and bringing up arguments for and against certain solutions, but also not sermonizing.  How do you do that?

Part of the answer is exactly what Jerome Stern said.  Experience is primary.  Your character is going to face some problem.  They're going to do something about it.  That's going to lead to other problems, more choices to make, and eventually a final consequence, good or bad.  The reader, then, experiences this character's life and decides for herself what she would have done in the same situation based on the outcomes of the character's decisions.

If you haven't seen it, go watch or read Hamlet.  What would you have done if your father's ghost appeared to you and asked you to avenge him by killing your uncle?  Look at what happened to Hamlet.  Would you have done as he did after seeing the consequences of his actions?  What might you have done instead?  Or did he do it right, even though his actions lead to his death?  The answer will be different for everyone.

Basically, you need to teach your reader something, but that's not what your story is about.  Your novel should be about a lot of things, but most of all it's about your characters living and choosing and acting and experiencing.  It's about something happening.  Tell a story, not a sermon, and your readers will come up with their own conclusions (perhaps they'll even agree with you).  They might have more questions at the end, but that's a good thing, too.

Characters

Last time I briefly mentioned a very important part of writing a novel: creating a character.  I said it's a really good way to start a story, but more than that, it's essential to everything you do as an author.  Today, I thought we'd talk about creating characters.

Sometimes it's helpful to draw
your character.  My sister, Alexa,
sketched this picture of one of
my characters named James.

Whether or not you've already got an idea for your plot, one of the first things you should do when writing a story or novel is outline your main characters.  Almost every time I come up with a person to write about, I make a character sheet.  This contains information about the character, their background, their family, their beliefs, their attitude, and when I write about that person in the book I can refer back to the sheet to make sure I'm being consistent and true to the character.

I have a handy little paper entitled "Character Analysis" from a theater class I took in high school that helps me.  It has basic stuff on there, like, "What is your name?"  "How would you describe yourself physically?" and "How do you dress?" but it also includes more detailed stuff like, "How do you treat other people?" "How do others treat you?" "What is your greatest want or need?" and "What phrase or expression do you use frequently?"  After making several character sheets I can often do one without looking at this paper, but sometimes it reminds me of little things I hadn't even considered.  If you go to this website, you'll find a very detailed character analysis questionnaire that might help you if you need to make your character a little deeper.  You can find more on google if needed.

Your character sheet can be as long or short as needed, but it should be enough that you know your character inside and out.  For my main characters, I often do a quick one page (front and back) analysis just to get the basic stuff down, but that really isn't enough to really understand a character.  In one of my creative writing classes, I wrote a ten page description of one character, and then wrote a two-page short story about her.  Sometimes the most helpful thing is to write multiple background stories for your character before even starting on the novel (or whatever you're doing).

I've learned that the best thing to do when creating a character is to let them tell you who they are.  Don't impose a personality on them, just let it come.  That probably sounds like something a crazy nature lady would say ("Be one with your character.  Feel her background story flow through you."), but it's true.  Try it.  Sit down with a pen and paper and imagine this person.  Don't decide, "Well, it would work really well in the novel if he disliked girls with short hair."  Don't think about the novel at all.  Just think about him.  What's he telling you?  Trust me, you'll be surprised what comes out.  And later on you may decide to change some things about their personality, and that's okay, as long as it's the character telling you, "No, I'm not like that."

Finally, a character should drive the plot, not be driven by it.  Whatever happens in your story, it should be caused by decisions a character makes.  It should not be caused by random occurrences that the character then has to live with.  For example, Johnny lives in Anytown, USA.  There's a huge earthquake, which ruins his neighborhood, but he's trapped there.  The rest of the book is about how hard it is for Johnny to live in that area, and at the end Johnny and everyone is either saved because someone comes to rescue them, or because the land just starts to slowly improve, or they die.  That's a terrible story.  Johnny never acted.  He was a victim of the plot.  Now how about this: after the earthquake, Johnny decides he's going to help his neighbors survive.  He ventures into dangerous area to find food.  He learns to hunt and cook to stay alive.  At the end, Johnny may live or die, but he chose to act.  If he lives, it's because his decisions lead to that.  If he dies, it's because his decisions lead to that.

So create a character that acts, or who actively decides not to act.  And make sure that whatever they choose drives the plot.  There's nothing worse than a character who was only made to serve the story.  The story is about them, not the other way around.