Novel Writing Made Less Impossible -- Working the Master Plot, Part 4
- Brian K. Morris
- Nov 8, 2017
- 6 min read
Welcome back! Sorry these entries are a bit long (and not quite the bite-ful you should expect). But Lester Dent is one of my fave writers EVER! Plus, he used this framework and sold everything he wrote, using it. That was good enough for me (and so far, it's worked and I don't mean selling my work to Freelance Words). As always, my comments are Bold. Also, while Mr. Dent discusses a 6,000-word story, a novel is far lengthier than that, particularly these days. This framework WORKS for short stories and huge tomes with equal ease. So here's the goodness leading us to the halfway point. Enjoy ...
SECOND 1500 WORDS 1--Shovel more grief onto the hero.
Dent isn't saying that the protagonist finds they just received an audit letter from the IRS or some such. I think that complications should arise from confronting the challenge, such as peeving the cops as you investigate the crime, or your boss doesn't like the time you're taking away from your job as you solve the mystery, or the space colony's oxygen supply can't match the extra breaths you take as you run from one clue to another. Connect the grief directly to the efforts taken to resolve the situation. And make the situation so dire that again, the protagonist can't simply give up and go home to make the challenge go away. 2--Hero, being heroic, struggles, and his struggles lead up to: 3--Another physical conflict.
Again, back in the day – and given the pulp venue – violence was what the audience expected. But today, the confrontation might take more subtle forms, depending on the genre you utilize. 4--A surprising plot twist to end the 1500 words.
This would be your station break. This plot twist should be sufficient to keep your audience after a bathroom and/or snack run. NOW: Does second part have SUSPENSE? Does the MENACE grow like a black cloud? Is the hero getting it in the neck? Is the second part logical?
One of the reasons I favor working from an outline, or series of notes, is that it's easier to see that you're writing yourself into a corner instead of writing by the seat of your pants and forcing yourself to snip all the content that got you there. It's easier to rewrite a few dozen words in an outline than to re-do hundreds, perhaps thousands, to backtrack to the point where you lost the plot, assuming you can locate that point. But the problem is the writer might fall in love with the dialog from that wrong turn or they simply resent having to dismiss all that work. Well, buck up and start cutting prose ... or work out the outline first and save yourself a lot of grief. DON'T TELL ABOUT IT***Show how the thing looked. This is one of the secrets of writing; never tell the reader--show him. (He trembles, roving eyes, slackened jaw, and such.) MAKE THE READER SEE HIM.
Writers are constantly reminded that television/film/stage plays/comic books/newspaper strips are a VISUAL medium. Actually, ALL writing is VISUAL, or should be.
Too many writers, particularly newer ones, forget to use body language, expressions, gestures, even simple movement to keep the prose lively. Think of yourself in a conversation … how many of you just SIT or STAND as you talk? No, you scratch, you shift from one foot to the other, your eyes dart away at distractions, you swallow, you give off physical "tells" in your eyes or hands that reveal what you might not even consciously think. These physical tics can break up long stretches of dialog (or in the case of graphic literature, such as comics or graphic novels, these visual aspects can give the reader something to look at, rather than just talking heads and I don't mean David Byrne and friends). When writing, it helps to get at least one minor surprise to the printed page. It is reasonable to to expect these minor surprises to sort of inveigle the reader into keeping on. They need not be such profound efforts.
One method of accomplishing one now and then is to be gently misleading. Hero is examining the murder room. The door behind him begins slowly to open. He does not see it. He conducts his examination blissfully. Door eases open, wider and wider, until--surprise! The glass pane falls out of the big window across the room. It must have fallen slowly, and air blowing into the room caused the door to open. Then what the heck made the pane fall so slowly? More mystery.
What Dent mentions is a good way to establish suspense for the reader. This is especially necessary in horror where one might feel cold drafts in a musty abandoned house. Sounds become amplified, gestures take on added significance as the paranoia increases. Indulge the senses as you write to build and sustain a mood.
Speaking of surprises, when writing Vulcana: Rebirth of the Champion, I knew that reasonably intelligent readers (I like to think that's the only kind I have) would guess the identity of The Big Bad quite easily. However, I decided that I'd give occasional emphasis to another character to throw people off the scent, or at least make them doubt their initial deduction. After that, I added more clues to make the reader second guess their recalculations. Then I moved the spotlight back to Suspect #2 and then reversed it a couple of chapters later.
Over the course of the novel, I played fair with the audience and refused to plant false clues. However, the attention that the narration gave led my readers to wonder who the villain was again and again.
As for the surprises that Dent urged you to add per page, I would add that you could put in some kind of funny when writing a comedy. I'd read years ago that most television sitcoms scripted two jokes per script page. One or both could be a mild chuckle, but the occasional belly laugh was encouraged. Characterizing a story actor consists of giving him some things which make him stick in the reader's mind. TAG HIM.
Sherlock Holmes wasn't exactly a people person. Doc Savage emitted a trilling noise when deep in thought. Chiun loved American soap operas. Ben Grimm uttered phrases like, "Whotta Revoltin' Development," and, "IT'S CLOBBERIN' TIME!" Idiosyncrasies like speech patterns and behaviors enrich a character and make him/her truly live in the readers' minds. BUILD YOUR PLOTS SO THAT ACTION CAN BE CONTINUOUS.
This cannot be stressed enough. The plot should demonstrate cause and effect every step of the way. If your hero winds up in a brothel in act three, he better have a great reason to go there by the end of act two.
That's why I went from "pantsing" to outlining with Bloodshot: The Coldest Warrior. A LOT of work goes into writing a novel and it's demoralizing to write and write and write and find one's self in a plot corner with little hope of finding the way out.
When I tried to write a book or screenplay without an outline, I didn't succeed. However, when I learned how well it worked, I haven't done a novel or short story yet without an outline to guide me.
That why I tell YOU to do the same. IT WORKS!
END OF PART TWO
NEXT WEEK: Working the Master Plot, Pt. 5
LAST WEEKEND: I want to thank Chris McQuillan for allowing me to be a guest at The ToyMan Toy & Comic Show in Bridgeport, MO last Sunday. It was a great time to network and to visit with my St.L. peeps. The only bad part was the torrential rain on the drive home (and two resulting hydroplaning incidents which I survived) and I can't blame anyone for that. Anyway, it was a great time and a great way to end the Freelance Words Literary Assault for 2017.
And I'm already lining up events for 2018. The best is truly yet to come!
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