Category: The Writer’s PenCase

Nearly two years ago, when I finished my Craftsman class with DiAnn Mills, she recommended I get a book entitled Story Trumps Structure, by Steven James.Its tagline is How to Write Unforgettable Fiction by Breaking the Rules. I haven’t read it all yet, but I’ve been skimming. This is a book for “pantsers,” those writers who hate the idea of plotting out every little scene and detail of their story. Because most of us “organic” writers know that [bctt tweet=”Even the best-laid plots of mice and men are sometimes changed while they’re being written.”] #amwriting #dontbreakpromises

This book is entirely different than any other book on writing I’ve ever seen. One chapter focuses on “Promises: The Keys to Building Suspense and Satisfying Your Readers.”

This is not something I’ve thought about when writing my novel. That my story is made up of a set of promises that I have to deliver on in order to keep my reader, by first making those promises, then keeping them. James says there are three scenarios at the beginning of any story: 1) will the protagonist have what they desire at the start, lose it and try to find it again? 2) Will the protagonist see what they desire from a distance, and pursue it? 3) Is the protagonist forced to escape what they dread most? The author says any of these three scenarios will launch the story and initiate the promises that will guide it.

Breaking Promises

Here are some of the ways you can break promises to readers:

1. Indicate (by the context, description, or number of words) that something will be important, and then fail to make it significant
2. Develop conflict, then don’t resolve it in a satisfactory way
3. Have your characters act in unbelievable ways
4. Build up a character toward an internal transformation, but end without letting him have one
5. Resolve too much tension too early
6. Introduce a character, make readers care, then drop them from the story

[bctt tweet=”Don’t break promises to your readers.”]. By avoiding these promise-breakers, we’ll have a better chance of keeping our readers. #amwriting #dontbreakpromises

What about you? Are you a plotter or a pantser? Leave a comment and let me know.

The tagline to Donald Maas’ The Fire in Fiction is “passion, purpose, and techniques TO MAKE YOUR NOVEL GREAT.”

The book covers everything from characterization, the story world, scenes, dialogue, and voice. Each chapter has a set of practical tools dealing with each section from that chapter. As an example, I’ll talk about Chapter Three, Scenes That Can’t Be Cut.

Generally, when writing, then self-editing, you go back and determine whether or not any given scene moves the story along and how important it is. I can’t remember how many scenes I actually cut from “Meghan’s Choice.” I learned a lot about how to decide whether a scene was important enough to keep. This book was recommended to me during that time. I’ve read parts of it as I continue to learn my craft.

The first Maas does in this chapter is to define what a turning point is. “What change takes place? When does that change occur (at what precise second in the scene)? In that moment, how is the point-of-view character changed?” From there, he continues to discuss inner and outer turning points. (pg. 56)

Turning then to dialogue, Maas says, “A common downfall of many scenes is dialogue. The characters talk, talk, talk, but scenes spin in circles and don’t travel much of anywhere…Dialogue not only needs to do its own work, it also can bring clarity to middle scenes that would otherwise be muddy and inactive. Dialogue is strong (or can be). The process of stripping it down and finding the tension in it can be revealing. It can help define the purpose of a scene.”

First and last lines of scenes are also important. Here’s what Maas says about them. “First and last lines need not be fancy. Even a utilitarian line can work well if it yanks us straight into, or amplifies, a scene’s main action.”

Another section he called “The Tornado Effect.” I loved this because I put a tornado in the middle of my novel. “Novels need events. Things need to happen: little things, big things. Especially big things. Big events shake protagonists, change the course of lives, and stay in readers’ memories.”

At the end of the chapter are the Practical Tools. For this chapter, the tool section is divided up into several parts: 1) Outer & Inner Turning Points, 2) Down Dialogue, 3) Goal & Setting Back, 4) Scenes That Can’t Be Cut, and 5) The Tornado Effect.

Here’s the tools list for Setting Goal & Setting Back

“Step 1: Write down what it is in this scene that your protagonist or point-of-view character wants.

Step 2: Create three hints in this scene that your protagonist or point-of-view character will get what he wants. Also, build three reasons to believe that he won’t get what he wants.

Step 3: Write the passages that express the results of Steps 1 and 2. In rewriting the scene in the next exercise, incorporate those passages. Eliminate as much else as possible.

Discussion: Just as stripping down dialogue helps punch up a scene, reducing a scene to a few strong steps toward or away from a goal also lends force and shape. Many authors wander through scene drafts, groping for the point. You can do it differently. instead, start with the point and enhance from there.” Pg.78-79

So, fire up your fiction. Make your novel crisp and strong.

If you’re a novelist, what are your strengths? Do you know them? How about your weakness? Do you know that? My strengths were told me by my mentors. They are, and I call them CRST: 1) characterization, 2) research, 3) storytelling, 4) teachability (in other words, I’m easy to teach because I’m hungry to learn). My weaknesses (things I have to watch for) are: 1) on-the-nose writing (too much extraneous detail), 2) repetitive use of the same word or phrase, 3) POV head-hopping, and 4) telling vs. showing.

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