{"id":1382,"date":"2021-05-05T13:58:20","date_gmt":"2021-05-05T17:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/?p=1382"},"modified":"2021-05-05T13:58:20","modified_gmt":"2021-05-05T17:58:20","slug":"the-dreaded-fog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/2021\/05\/05\/the-dreaded-fog\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dreaded Fog"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Once upon a time, on April 13, 2020, Writing Cat Lover wrote, I am actually writing a “Hansel and Gretel” retelling, and I was wondering \u2013 how do you figure out the plot? Like, I know that Gretel has to find out in some way that she has magical powers and then eventually go on some kind of quest and defeat some kind of witch, but I am still having trouble figuring the plot out and I\u2019m always losing my way.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know if that was clear enough or not, but basically here is the summary: I need tips on plotting because all I am really doing is stumbling blindly through the fog of writing.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two of you responded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Katie W.: As someone who has stumbled through the fog of writing many times before (and who only really figured out how plotting works a week ago), here are a few tips. 1. Plots are the way characters try to reach their goals. So, if you make a list of the character\u2019s goals and the things they do to achieve them (kind of like New Year\u2019s resolutions), you have the bare bones of an outline. 2. Freytag\u2019s Pyramid (the upside-down triangle that shows action rising and falling over the course of the story) can apply to anything from a scene to a series. Everything has exposition, rising action, a climax, falling action, and a resolution, and if you can find your story\u2019s inciting incident (where the rising action starts), climax, and resolution, you can fit the rest of it around those three points. 3. Feel free to stumble, get hopelessly lost, and backtrack as many times as you need to in order to find your story. It\u2019s easier to plot the second draft than the first.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kit Kat Kitty: I\u2019ve been where you are so many times before. And what really helped was reading a book about plotting. For me, I didn\u2019t understand plots well enough to hit all the right beats without writing out an outline, and I didn\u2019t know how to write an outline because I didn\u2019t understand plot well enough. I was too scared of all the complicated outline methods out there to watch videos or read articles about them. But when I finally sat down and read a book about plotting (Save The Cat! Write a Novel) it helped me a lot. It has fifteen beats that I used to outline my current WIP. Of course, that isn\u2019t the only plotting method out there, but it worked for me because it was simple, and a very universal outline. (All books have most if not all of the beats whether or not that\u2019s what the author intended. The book goes into this more, and I would highly recommend reading it.) So I was able to grasp it easily.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, if you\u2019re not a plotter, being a pantser is perfectly fine! I\u2019d still recommend reading books about plot so you can absorb all the information and subconsciously get to all the places you need to in your book once you understand what they are. This was my main problem when I tried pantsing novels, I didn\u2019t understand plot nearly as well as I needed to.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess I\u2019m saying the best thing to do is research about plot structure, and if you want to plot, research different methods. It might not be easy, but it\u2019ll be worth it. For once, I don\u2019t feel hopelessly lost when I\u2019m writing. For now. I hope this helps.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I agree with Katie W. The first draft isn\u2019t supposed to be perfect, or even good. I\u2019m working on a zero draft right now, which is basically just throw-up in word form on a page, but once I\u2019m done, I\u2019ll have something to work with that\u2019ll (hopefully) eventually become a good story.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love the idea of a zero draft! That takes the pressure off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the version of \u201cHansel and Gretel\u201d collected by the Brothers Grimm, neither Gretel nor Hansel does anything magical, and there isn\u2019t a quest. You can read a plot summary in Wikipedia. The original may make the plotting easier because we can come up with our own complications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing Cat Lover may be working from an adaptation, which can be tricky. If the adaptation isn\u2019t old enough to be in the public domain there may be infringement issues. I suggest checking this out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The old fairy tales in their original form are in the public domain, but not necessarily adaptations (a Disney version, for example) or translations (because translations are copy protected too).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By now I\u2019ve fogged and stumbled through a bunch of novels. The sweet ones seemed to want to be written. The meanies (The Two Princesses of Bamarre<\/em> and, especially, my second fantasy mystery, Stolen Magic<\/em>) preferred to keep their secrets to themselves. They stuck imaginary tongues out and dared me to write them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stolen Magic<\/em> scarred me. It took over four years to write and didn\u2019t become even a first cousin of the story I hoped to write: a version of the 19th century original fairy tale, \u201cThe King of the Golden River\u201d by John Ruskin, which I love for its atmosphere but not so much for its predictable plot, which I hoped to correct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before Stolen Magic<\/em>, I believed E. L. Doctorow\u2019s advice that \u201cWriting a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.\u201d E. L. Doctorow wrote a lot of novels, and his advice may work for some, but he led me astray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nowadays, I have to have the major kinks figured out before I commit myself to a book, whether it\u2019s a retelling of a fairy tale or an original story. I may write a few pages before then, though, and call a halt to think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I\u2019ve never used the inciting incident, rising action, etc. method though I assume my stories have those things. I like to adapt fairy tales or myths because they give me a skeletal plot, or I think they do. Most of them are riddled with logical holes big enough for a dragon to fall through. I have to figure them out before I can get going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I often find my way by framing my plot as a quest, which, for example, is what pulled me through Two Princess<\/em>es. I think most stories can be looked at that way. \u201cHansel and Gretel\u201d can be looked at as a quest for a safe home. Or one to end the witch’s reign of terror. Or something else that we can decide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To find the quest and our plot in general, we have to decide whose story we\u2019re telling. Take \u201cSnow White,\u201d for example. In the original, the character with the most agency is the evil queen, and her tragic quest, in a way, is to stop time to keep herself from aging and Snow White from growing into her beauty. We have to rearrange things to make it Snow White\u2019s story, which can be a quest for a safe home as it is in my mind for Hansel and Gretel. Or for power. Or for true love. All depending on how we do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So when we think about our plot, we need to ask ourselves questions:
\u2022 Which character is our MC?
\u2022 Who\u2019s telling the story? May be our MC–or not.
\u2022 What does our MC want or what caused them to be at risk?
\u2022 What are the obstacles and who stands in the way?
\u2022 What qualities will help or harm our MC?
\u2022 What kind of world is this, because the answer will affect our MC\u2019s ability to act and the sorts of actions that are possible.
\u2022 How do we want it to end? What will that look like? How will we get there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my case, since I tend to get mixed up, it helps for me to write notes and review and re-review my ideas, because I\u2019m likely to forget about a snag that threatens everything, that will make me have to delete fifty pages\u2013or much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having said all this, though, the fog of writing may be the writer\u2019s curse. Writing Cat Lover may be doing nothing wrong. It may be that, for most of us, if we\u2019re not in some amount of fog, we\u2019re not mining the depths that lurk in our story. A friend told me that Stephen King takes his laptop to sports events and types away, able to write and follow the game at the same time. He must not be an ordinary mortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe I\u2019ll be wandering in my fog and bump into you, wandering in yours!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are three prompts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Write your current WIP as a three-to-five page fairy tale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 “Before the Law” is a parable within the novel The Tria<\/em>l by surrealist Franz Kafka. It isn\u2019t my kind of thing, but it may be fun to fool around with in terms of plotting. Ask the questions I pose above to write a story that appeals to you. This summary comes from Wikipedia: A man from the country seeks “the law” and wishes to gain entry to it through an open doorway, but the doorkeeper tells the man that he cannot go through at the present time. The man asks if he can ever go through, and the doorkeeper says it is possible “but not now.\u201d The man waits by the door for years, bribing the doorkeeper with everything he has. The doorkeeper accepts the bribes, but tells the man he only accepts them “so that you do not think you have left anything undone.” The man does not attempt to murder or hurt the doorkeeper to gain entry to the law, but waits at the doorway until he is about to die. Right before his death, he asks the doorkeeper why, even though everyone seeks the law, no one else has come in all the years he has been there. The doorkeeper answers, “No one else could ever be admitted here, since this gate was made only for you. I am now going to shut it.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 In case you don\u2019t have enough fog, here\u2019s more! You may know the Greek myth about Demeter, Hades, and Persephone. Persephone is the daughter of Demeter, the harvest goddess, whom Hades (god of the underworld) falls in love with, abducts, and marries. Demeter, overwhelmed with grief, prevents anything from growing. People starve, but Demeter refuses to relent. Zeus sends Hermes, the messenger god, to get Persephone back. There\u2019s more to the story, because Hades does something sneaky, but this is all you need for the prompt. Hermes is your MC. Write his journey through the land, which Demeter has plunged in darkness, to the murky underworld, to retrieve Persephone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have fun, and save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once upon a time, on April 13, 2020, Writing Cat Lover wrote, I am actually writing a “Hansel and Gretel” retelling, and I was wondering \u2013 how do you figure out the plot? Like, I know that Gretel has to find out in some way that she has magical powers and then eventually go on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1382"}],"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=1382"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1396,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1382\/revisions\/1396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}