{"id":725,"date":"2016-04-13T08:52:25","date_gmt":"2016-04-13T12:52:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/?p=725"},"modified":"2016-04-13T08:52:25","modified_gmt":"2016-04-13T12:52:25","slug":"cinderella-with-a-teddy-bear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/2016\/04\/13\/cinderella-with-a-teddy-bear\/","title":{"rendered":"Cinderella with a Teddy Bear"},"content":{"rendered":"

On February 18, 2016, WriterGirl4Life wrote, I find that I\u2019m always getting bored with my stories, putting them away, critiquing myself, or just getting bored with my plot. Can you help?<\/em><\/p>\n

When one of my stories isn\u2019t going well, I just don\u2019t want to go near it, which is my version of getting bored. Working on the project feels like slogging through glue. It\u2019s happened many times, and the reason varies:<\/p>\n

\u2219 We\u2019ve made our MC unsympathetic, a mistake I\u2019ve committed than once and the latest instance is very recent. I think I\u2019ve mentioned that I\u2019ve started a new book in Ella\u2019s world, and my main character, Daria (recognize that name?), is turned into an ogre in the first chapter, so this isn\u2019t much of a spoiler alert. I\u2019m only twenty-two pages in, but I started feeling gluey and eventually realized that likableness is the problem. Instead of responding with horror over her transformation, Daria minimizes the situation\u00a0and instantly plans how to deal with it. I want her to be capable and self-confident, but these qualities mean the most when a character struggles. In this case, the consequences are that the reader doesn\u2019t worry because Daria has the situation in hand and doesn\u2019t care because Daria doesn\u2019t seem to. The reader may think, I don\u2019t understand this character. If someone turned me into an ogre, I\u2019d want to jump out of my skin.<\/p>\n

Once I figured that out, I went back to the beginning–contrary to the advice I give here–and fixed. Daria is now miserable, and I\u2019m out of the glue. So one cause of boredom may be MC character trouble, and one reason for that may be unlikableness caused by a deficit in vulnerability.<\/p>\n

\u2219 We\u2019re not in our MC\u2019s mind and heart enough, which is related to unlikableness. We\u2019re telling our story more through action and dialogue and our MC\u2019s inner life is missing. We\u2019re bored because we can\u2019t seem to connect with him. We may have our plot path worked out, but we don\u2019t know why he goes down it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d go to my notes to consider this. I might interview him in my notes and ask him what he feels and thinks about what\u2019s going on in the story. We may dream up alternative answers for him, and we can decide from them what sort of person he is, or we\u2019d like him to be. We may discover he\u2019s not willing to do some of what\u2019s being required of him. Based on our discoveries, we may adjust our plot or adjust him, which may involve rethinking earlier scenes, whether we revise on the spot or wait until the whole story is written. That done, we can work his thoughts and emotions into our narrative.<\/p>\n

\u2219 We\u2019ve solved the problem in our story without realizing. I did this in an early version of The Lost Kingdom of Bamarre<\/em>. To be specific would be a major spoiler alert, so I have to speak in generalities. My MC has a mission, but she\u2019s propelled to pursue it only because of a \u00a0need that’s\u00a0deep-seated in her psyche. Accidentally, without realizing and in a tangential way, I solved the need, and the wind went out of my sails. I was trapped in glue until, finally, I saw what I\u2019d done. Let\u2019s take an example from the traditional \u201cCinderella,\u201d not my version. In my opinion, the underlying problem, and the reason the story appears in some form in every culture, is that the MC feels unappreciated, a near universal source of unhappiness. Cinderella is great! Look at how helpful and capable she is. And kind. And plucky. But the only one who might appreciate her–her father–is never on the scene, and she gets no respect from her step-family. Well, suppose, a year before the balls, her fairy godmother shows up and gives her, say, a magical stuffed teddy bear that can talk. Every night at bedtime, Cinderella cuddles up with her toy and he admires her for all her accomplishments and her sterling qualities. Nothing really has changed; her step-family is still cruel. But she\u2019s satisfied. Who cares about a prince when she has Teddy? We\u2019re likely to stay bored or gluey until somebody wields a sharp instrument and slits that bear open from his cute black nose to his darling belly.<\/p>\n

In this case, we may not know why we\u2019re bored, but we can think about what our MC wants or needs most. Have we accidentally provided it? Have we been unable to tolerate her unhappiness so we helped her out just, we thought, a little bit?<\/p>\n

\u2219 Houston, we have a plot problem. I never fail to have some of these, alas. You may remember how tangled up I got writing what eventually became Stolen Magic<\/em>. In an earlier version, which I eventually revised out of existence, MC Elodie\u2019s mother falls under a spell of greediness. She believes she\u2019s King Midas and doesn\u2019t mind when Elodie seems to turn to gold, because she\u2019d rather, in her madness, have wealth than a living daughter. It was horrifying, and, forgive me!, I loved it. But I didn\u2019t know how to end the spell without making everything okay or without giving Elodie an ally I didn\u2019t want her to have, so the madness dragged on and on, and I sank in glue. I wish I\u2019d figured this out and been able to use this plot twist, but I couldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

We may not have to revise everything. If we\u2019ve written ourselves into a corner, we can go back to the point where we got into trouble, or we can list ways to change what\u2019s going on, and we can judge how we\u2019re doing by our state of mind. Are we no longer bored? Are we eager to write again?<\/p>\n

The point is, we\u2019re not stuck with anything. The final state of our story is changeable until we say it\u2019s done. If we save our old version, we can blow up any part. I love this freedom, which is a prime advantage of writing, in my opinion, over every other\u00a0art form!<\/p>\n

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

\u2219 In this election season, here\u2019s a political\u2019ish plot idea. Your MC at fifteen is running to be the youngest member of the town council. She has the vote of her parents\u2019 generation, who, basically, think she\u2019s adorable, and that\u2019s enough for them. The problem is the youth vote, because young people near her age but old enough to vote find her unlikable\u2013you decide why. Write the story, being sure to include her thoughts and feelings.<\/p>\n

\u2219 Give Cinderella the admiring teddy bear (or other stuffed animal), but make him creepy. Lead the reader to suspect him right away even while Cinderella is delighted with him. Soon, he adds to her many troubles. Write \u201cCinderella with a\u00a0Teddy Bear.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2219 Snow White has escaped to the dwarfs. The magic mirror breaks, and her evil stepmother goes on thinking she\u2019s been restored to fairest-in-the-land status. Readers all over the universe are yawning. Give her a new problem\u2013the hunter? a problem dwarf? the prince in danger? an approaching asteroid?\u2013and write the story.<\/p>\n

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

On February 18, 2016, WriterGirl4Life wrote, I find that I\u2019m always getting bored with my stories, putting them away, critiquing myself, or just getting bored with my plot. Can you help? When one of my stories isn\u2019t going well, I just don\u2019t want to go near it, which is my version of getting bored. Working […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[267,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725"}],"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=725"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":726,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions\/726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}