\nWe\u2019re continuing with last week\u2019s questions, so here they are again:<\/p>\n
On February 29, 2012, Maddi wrote, I’m having some trouble getting “inspired.” I have my plot worked out, I’m just having problems with the in-between stuff like character development and other small events. I’m not even sure if I can make it into a good quality piece of writing. I’ve been turning to Legend of Zelda fanfiction. It works, but I want to produce something that is my own idea. Lately my spelling has been really off, even though I’m a pretty good speller. Any ideas?<\/i><\/p>\n
Then last week TsuneEmbers wrote, I’ve been having way too much trouble w\/ my own writing lately, as in it won’t come out and actually get anywhere. This makes me sad since I love writing stuff. I think I kinda lost my drive there, when I realized that one of my ideas was way too complicated, and not working at all. =\/ I tried simplifying it out to a more workable form, but it still doesn’t actually feel like it can work yet.<\/i>
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<\/i>
\nI am toying with another idea of mine though, but of course, my usual plotting problems bit that one, so I’m currently stuck with not writing anything. I have a few major characters in my head already, and a vague idea of what I want to happen to them, but that’s about it. The vague idea could be considered a plot in a sense, I guess, but it doesn’t give me any idea over where to actually start the story. Not to mention that the word plot tends to make me scared every time someone mentions it, because I’m really more of a character person, and I don’t get this plotting thing as well.<\/i><\/p>\n
Let\u2019s start with a prompt similar to one in Writing Magic<\/i>. Let\u2019s take two classics I hope you know well, Jane Eyre<\/i> and Pride and Prejudice<\/i>, and switch heroines. If you haven\u2019t read them, now may be the time. Then come back and try the prompt, which is to rewrite the scenes in each book where heroine and hero first encounter each other. In Jane Eyre<\/i> this is when Rochester\u2019s horse throws him, and in Pride and Prejudice<\/i> it\u2019s at a dance, but a scene at Bingley\u2019s house when Jane is ill might be even better. If you like, after you finish the scene, keep going.<\/p>\n
What you\u2019ll find, I hope, is that plot changes when character changes. The two can\u2019t be teased apart. If you continue with the prompt you’ll have an enormously changed story on your hands. Maddi and TsuneEmbers, your separate problems may be just as entwined.<\/p>\n
Maddi, you have your plot, but you may not have figured out what sort of character will go in the direction of your story. Let\u2019s imagine that a heroine, Iola, lives with her parents and her brother Osiah in the village of Ewark. She\u2019s out gathering firewood, and when she returns, she finds her village destroyed by the savage Rindik clan. Her parents have been killed, but one of the few survivors tells her that her four-year-old brother has been taken. In the plot plan, Iola, after many trials, saves her brother and becomes leader of her clan. You (obviously this you isn\u2019t you anymore, Maddi, just an anonymous writer trying to find her way) know what the trials are and how the triumph comes about, but Iola seems to be sleepwalking through it all. Characters come and go, saying their lines woodenly. You are having a harder and harder time sitting down to write.<\/p>\n
What to do?<\/p>\n
Well, there are lots of questions to ask yourself. Here are a few: What\u2019s Iola like? Is she naturally brave? If not, how does she persuade herself to take on the task ahead? If she is brave, brave how? Is she foolhardy? Does she overestimate her abilities? Why was she fetching firewood at the fateful moment? (Maybe she stamped off after an argument with her father. Maybe she offered to get the firewood to avoid being stuck with watching her brother. Either of these could make her feel pretty guilty.)<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s another prompt: Write down at least five more questions about Iola. Notice that I\u2019ve been choosing questions that may increase conflict, that may give her a harder time achieving her goals. But some questions (and answers) may help her.<\/p>\n
Now consider a secondary character. Suppose Iola needs an ally. Let\u2019s imagine that she has to win supporters to her cause, but, although she\u2019s a sterling person, good to the core, she puts her foot in her mouth whenever she opens it. She needs honey-tongued Ennio to be her ambassador. Now you need to ask questions about him. Why is he willing to endanger himself? Why would he throw his lot in with Iola, of all the other leader possibilities? Why is he willing to be subordinate to her? (You may need to think more about Iola to answer some of these.) A third prompt: more questions about him.<\/p>\n
And a fourth: Based on your questions and your answers, write the first scene in your story between Iola and Ennio.<\/p>\n
And a fifth: If you\u2019re Maddi or are having a problem like hers, return to your own story now and ask questions. Rewrite a scene, then come back to the blog.<\/p>\n
Now that you\u2019re back if you went away, another way to make a story less mechanical is to ensure the reader cares about the stakes, which in this case may involve making the reader love Iola and her little brother Osiah and possibly her parents. Which suggests more questions. What is Osiah like? What was his relationship with his big sister? Same for the parents.<\/p>\n
Again, a prompt. Write this scene: Iola is making her way across rough terrain. She may be tracking the Rendik or hurrying to the nearest village, but she has time to contemplate. As she\u2019s figuring out what to do next, include her feelings and a few thoughts that will illuminate her relationship with her family. You can go to a full-blown flashback, but you can also just drop in tidbits. For example, maybe she’s thinking about how her mother taught her outdoor survival techniques and her father used to joke about her mom\u2019s methods and Osiah would laugh along without understanding the meaning of any of it.<\/p>\n
This contemplation while traveling is just one example, but including thoughts and feelings regularly (almost constantly) helps bring a character to life and engages the reader too.<\/p>\n
TsuneEmbers, you think you know your characters. But maybe you know them in a static way and you don\u2019t know what they\u2019ll do. You might review your main character\u2019s profile and, based on it, list ten things that could happen to him that would give him trouble, funny trouble or serious misery. Let your mind go. See if one or more of your ideas begins to suggest a story. See if you can incorporate a few of the problems into the story. Ask yourself what your main wants and also what he definitely, absolutely under any circumstance does not<\/i> want, which, naturally, you can give him.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s take Iola again. Suppose she\u2019s been sheltered, a little over-protected, by her family, which she\u2019s resented since she turned twelve, but there\u2019s been an effect. She\u2019s not sure of herself, because she hasn\u2019t been tested. Deep down she wonders if her parents protected her because they feared she wasn\u2019t capable. Let\u2019s say, along the lines I already suggested, she speaks her mind forthrightly and often offends. Then, when she offends someone and realization hits, she feels doubly bad, embarrassed about the way she expressed herself and awful for the person she criticized, whom she believes must be mortified. Let\u2019s make her generous and stubborn and give her an impish sense of humor. And anything else you want to throw in. Or, of course, you can make her entirely different from what I’ve laid out.<\/p>\n
Final prompt: Knowing what you\u2019ve invented about Iola, write the scene when she returns to the village and discovers the massacre. If you like, keep going.<\/p>\n
Have fun, and save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We\u2019re continuing with last week\u2019s questions, so here they are again: On February 29, 2012, Maddi wrote, I’m having some trouble getting “inspired.” I have my plot worked out, I’m just having problems with the in-between stuff like character development and other small events. I’m not even sure if I can make it into a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[87,118],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":385,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions\/385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}