Plot

Three parts of plot:
SETTING (how the plot is at the beginning)
Tensions in the world before the conflict emerges
i.e. Hunger games - Katniss, in district 12, they're starving and she's sneaking out to go hunt
Level 3. Bystander to fight (and later gets involved in the fight) - more rare (The Matrix - humans against the machines, there's a fight
(The Host - she's a bystander, then get's pulled into the fight/conflict)
Level 2. There's a fight in progress, but it is NOT the same as the conflict.
(i.e. Hunger games - the fight is can they stay alive in district 12 - not the fight/conflict of the actual Hunger Games)
Level 1. No fight (i.e. Monster's Inc, The Hobbit)

CONFLICT
The main conflict in the story
i.e. The Hunger Games, fighting to stay alive
Level 3. Loyalty & Law - Choose between loyalties/laws they are familiar with and something else - element of choice and sides.
(i.e. How to Train your Dragon, Monster's Inc)
Level 2. (Most common) Focused fight - physical or internal, but they are actively fighting. This entails both sides fighting - the people have a chance, and have some control.
Level 1. Perceptual - there isn't a physical conflict - there could be perceptual danger, or
the main character doesn't have much control - they are acted upon. This is harder to do for full length stories. Class struggles can be a type of perceptual struggle.
Oliver Twist, Ever After?

RESOLUTION
i.e. Katniss and Peeta both managed to get out alive

Level 3. (Most common) Defeat using Clever use of Law - (i.e. Harry Potter defeats Voldemort destroying the Horcruxes and using the hallows
Monster's Inc defeats him by using the simulator - using something that's been established earlier. Hunger Games - Katniss decides they should eat the berries. The law is that the games have to have a winner, so taking away a winner means the Capital fails, so she uses that to beat the Capital/games)
Level 2. Physical Defeat - (Can be satisfying but aren't as mainstream now) The team wins, the Hobbit
Level 1. Perception unified but unsolved. These don't work as well with longer stories, but work fine with shorter stories. (i.e. Godzilla - in some versions, goes back into the ocean and he's gone. 1984 - the government finally braks his mind and he knows they're going to kill him eventually, and the book ends with him knowing that but not actually dying.)

The Rule: You should NOT let your plot drop lower. If you're story is a 2-2 ____ you can't end the resolution with a 1.
1-2-3 is okay, 3-2-1 is not. The only way to have a good resolution ending at a level 1 (Perception unified) is if you have your setting and conflict stages be 1 also (1-1-1 works, 2-2-1 doesn't).

Some examples:
Monster's Inc - the conflict begins by a physical conflict of kicking them out (2) but escalates to a 3 when they have to choose loyalties.

Aladdin - setting 2 (starts with his own fight for survival on the street), conflict is 2 (focused fight), resolution 3 (Aladdin uses the rule of genies against Jafar and defeated Jafar)

Twilight - setting 1 (no fight), conflict is 1 (she doesn't have any control over things) or 2 (focused fight - his blood lust for her, her resistance/choices), and resolution 2 - physical win over the other vampire.


The Atonement / Fall Story: 1-2-3

Endings in a Series:
The plot of the first book should come to resolution. I.e. there's resolution to the main conflict for the first book. And the plot over the series is to defeat the main bad guy - THAT is not the main conflict of the book, so they can resolve/solve the fight (and have a good resolution of 2 or 3) and then the main bad guy getting away doesn't defeat the resolution of the first book.

Link to the Class website that Kim is in - thanks so much to Kim for this mini lesson!!
http://linguistics.byu.edu/classes/elang410am/fictionedit.html

Pacing in Your Writing

Cary gave us some tips on pacing today:
Biggest distinction: what the story is focused on.

Fast vs. Slow

Emotions, thoughts,

Fast: background fades away. You will cut a lot of adjectives and adverbs - use descriptive verbs instead.
i.e. was a glorious, beautiful sunrise. --> The sun had lept into the sky.
Slow: wider view. You take in details around you, backgrounds, scenery, overall view of characters.

Transitions: Don't jump between fast-paced and slow-paced. Try to build up to faster-paced sections, and build-down to slower sections.
i.e. including details that give the reader a sense of foreboding makes them expect a faster-paced scene. After an intense, stressful scene there might be a sense of relief, and at that point it is natural for the pace to slow down.

Also, it can be helpful to think about the tone of your scene, and how that affects how you write it. See our post on Tone.

Nanowrimo: A Novel in 30 Days

Nanowrimo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and takes place from November 1st - 31st.
The goal is to write 50,000 words in one month.

This is a ted talk we watched this week about setting 30-day goals...like writing a novel :)

 
Scrivner - Fantastic program for helping you write a novel
How to write a novel using scrivner
Write faster with scrivner

Point of View

General Point of View information:

No reason to redo what has already been done well: See This Page about the types of Point of View.

Writing in first person vs. third person is not only changing 'he'/'she' to 'I'.  When writing in first person, the story can be told with thoughts, emotions, and opinions mixed into the narration.

Pronouns & Point of View
*If you need help with knowing what word choice / pronouns go with what point of view, click here.

WRITING EXERCISE 1: Write a couple paragraphs (or use something you've already written) and change it between first person and third person. Second person is used less often, but you could try it out if you would like.
Past / Present Tense
We looked at two examples of first person writing:

• The Lightning Thief - First person past tense (I mumbled, etc.)
• Hunger Games - First person present tense (I prop, I swing, I always)

If you want to see the same passage of text in a past tense and a present tense form, here is a good example.

WRITING EXERCISE 2: Write a couple paragraphs (or use something you've already written) and change it between past and present tense.


Writing from the Opposite Gender's Point of View:
These are some of my favorite tips:

• Draw from real life; pay attention to conversation and actions of the other gender
• Men tend to speak more directly than women
• Avoid Stereotypes!

From: CrimsonLeague
More to read on Writing the Opposite Gender....
http://www.indiesunlimited.com/2013/01/16/writing-pov-the-opposite-sex/
http://learnasyouwrite.com/how-to-write-pov-for-the-opposite-sex/http://learnasyouwrite.com/how-to-write-pov-for-the-opposite-sex/

WRITING EXERCISE 3: (I recommend doing this in first person). Pick a scene you've been writing. Make a list of details a boy would notice and a girl would notice (and what they would both notice). Notice what's the same, what's different. Then write a paragraph from a male perspective (involving those details and in a relatively more direct style) and a paragraph from a female perspective (again, involving the details you think a girl would notice over a guy).
THE TEST: Give your two paragraphs to a reader, and ask them to tell you what gender narrator each paragraph is from.

Some Related Posts on Character / Voice:
Realistic and Exciting Characters
Notes on Tone, Style & Voice
Knowing Your Characters

Being Unique

Is your story unique enough? Is your character original?

Plot: Pick out a couple stories who have a similar plot to yours. List the differences between your plot and theirs - then decide if it's got enough to make it a new story.

Protagonist: Ask yourself these questions about your character.
1. What makes them different than the other people around them?
2. What makes them act differently than someone else would, in a certain situation?
3. What little things make them interesting - their pet peeves, their fears, their quirky habits?
4. If there is a romantic subject, what makes this character different than what would be the "typical" character? In other words, think of the "typical" character type out there that your protagonist would be most like, and identify what differences there are between the typical, and your original.
(You First Novel --Ann Rittenberg & Laura Whitcomb)

Antagonist: Our bad guys need originality too.
1. First thing to check: Is your antagonist just bad, because he is the bad guy? Usually you want him to have slightly-relateable drives. I.e. Voldemort wants to avoid death. Basically every other character in Harry Potter (as well as each of us) want to avoid death too. Gollum is drawn (addicted) to the power of the ring. Practically everyone else is too. The Wicked Witch of the West is upset that Dorothy's house killed the Witch of the East (You would be upset too if someone killed your friend, right?)
**Your bad guy needs humanizing / relatable / somewhat-understandable characteristics or motives**
This helps them feel real.
2. Think about the story from their perspective. Maybe they want to keep power. Maybe they honestly believe that pure bloods are better than muggles and that the world is better without muggle-borns.

Know Your Characters

This is a great post on how we should understand how are characters would act in different situations. :) Check it out!

http://www.publishingcrawl.com/2013/04/15/know-your-characters/

Writing from Fairy Tales

What is a Fairytale? It's a highly moralistic story - usually warning. It's often completely unrealistic. This includes myths/legends.

Three main types of fairytale-run-offs

Mirrored: exact same story, 300 times longer (i.e. goose girl, by Shannon hale)

Twisted: same story, basically follows the same thing, but it’s from a different character’s point of view, or it has a twist at the end. (i.e. once upon a time – little red riding hood is also the wolf, so it’s a twist)

Fractured: more rare type. Everything is completely different (i.e.  just a few elements. i.e. "Cinderella" character has two step sisters, but she’s an arson assassin – everything else from the fairytale story goes away at some point).

- Thanks Sarah for teaching us today!

Sci Fi

Notes from our meeting on Science Fiction - big thanks to Sarah for teaching us all about it!

Epic fantasy – huge, intricate worlds, - Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan, George R. R. Martin, Tolkien Really intricate worlds (word count 120-150k words)

Heroic fantasy – usually lots of action, sword fighting, gritty, Conan the Barbarian (80-100k words)

Urban fantasy (aka Modern fantasy) – our world, buffy the vampire slayer (smaller, faster-paced, usually about 70k words)

The difference between sci fi and fantasy –

“Dr. Who is awesome because it walks the line between. It also walks the line between being really stupid and really awesome.” Science fiction will simply have science terms to explain what’s going on. IE-the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver—it could easily be a ‘wand’ but the scientific terms gives it a more science fiction feel.

“Sci Fi” -

Space Marine - more military, it’s focused on the battles. The science makes sense but science is not the focus. Battlestar Gallactica (80-100k words)

Space opera – i.e. star wars, space, doesn’t have the scientific specifics (i.e. the light saber works because…he used the force because he has the special blood…etc.)

Hard sci fi – science is legitimate (60-200k words depending on topic)

Steam punk

Distopian

Supernatural

Etc.

Technology in science fiction should be grounded in current day technologies.

Sci fi & fantasy – style & writing style:

Sci fi: sentences are shorter, more sciency-stuff, condensed dialogue

Fantasy: careful with the ‘ye’ etc – might bug your readers. You can use normal prose but use slightly fancier diction like ‘wept’ instead of ‘cried’

Big new world: big world, narrow in. desert planet? Where is the water? Civilizations are gathered around water.  Don’t believe it? Read up on the Egyptians – everything centered around the river.

Come up with a general map. Commerce? How long to travel between cities?

All taking place in one city – way easier to write.

How many nations? Similar? Different? Geographical differences between them?

Cultural settings: governments, religion, gender roles, race, economics, technological advancements, family structures.

You don’t have to have ALL of it for ALL of them. Focus on two or three. Add in the occasional details for the other areas. You don’t have to make it complicated.

If you’re stuck, just pick a few randomly. Put them in a hat and draw out some options.

Trying to develop a language:

Don’t be Tolkien. Tolkien was a master linguist. He made up 15 languages, then wrote the books for the language.

Easy way to make language – make up a code. Use existing languages. i.e. Took japanese grammar and Italian words and make up words using google translate. You don’t have to go into full detail – i.e. George R. R. Martin wrote a book with a new language and only made up about 8 words. You often see books use italics when characters are speaking a different language.

Subtle learning curve. Don’t pile on this character with this ethnicity & religion and this weapon and this background – don’t rush. You’ll drive your reader insane. Slowly build up to the awesome stuff. Have small differences like; what is the standard of beauty? Are boys favored over girls? These are common things people are familiar with but they also reveal a lot about a culture.

Give them some things to relate to—don’t make everything new. Introduce things slowly and gradually build in the world. Trees are still trees, bread is bread, etc.

Brandon & Robert Jordan, Martin, Tolkien – they pull from existing cultures.

*Things tend to change as you go a bit.  Start on the small details and run with it.

Magic:

You don’t have to have a system. Tolkien let Gandalf have magic when it was convenient. That’s okay but the trend is more to have an established system like Sanderson or Rowling. In a magic system, there should be a price and a limitation. IE- In Harry Potter, the cost is knowing the proper incantation and reciting it properly (and you have to practice, it's not just easy for everyone). The limitation is only one spell can be done at a time, you must be powerful enough to perform said spell, etc. Try to make the cost greater than the reward. (Sanderson does this) 

Beginnings - Hooking Your Reader

Some awesome first lines:
"The gunman is useless." - I am the Messenger
"When I think of my wife, I always think of her head." -Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn
"What about a tea kettle?" - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
            It's not as much a catchy line, but it makes you go what? And you want to get to know the narrator, this kid, because his musings on the teakettle are so different.
"In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit." - The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien
"It's the first of November, so today someone will die." - The Scorpio Races
See 100 Fabulous First lines here.

Some good ideas / Tips:
1. Keep it simple. Don't overwhelm your reader, but don't be vague. "Something stirred in the night." - simple but too vague. Don't do a long run-on sentence.
2. Introduce character. You will have a problem if you don't have a character - again, our first line "Something stirred in the night." You should not open with setting - you should open with the character. Either description of the character, or the character's voice.
3. Be different or shocking. You have to be interesting. Show your reader that this book isn't like all the other books. *In the example of the teakettle line, the boy has a very unique voice and an unusual interest/thoughts about the tea kettle.
4. Set the tone - see our recent post on Tone.
5. Speak to your reader as if they are a confidant. Most of the time you want a reliable narrator, and you want your readers to feel a connection with the narrator or character. You, as the writer, narrator, speaker, or character are speaking to the reader in some way.
See 100 Fabulous Opening Lines here.

Things to Avoid:
Don't try to hard to write well - often times people write overly-well-written opening paragraphs. They try to make it impressive and poetic, etc.
Don't start the first sentence with setting.
Don't be vague.

*The Rule of Exceptions*
"There is an exception to every rule, except the Rule of Exceptions."

Notes on Tone, Style & Voice

So this last week we talked about voice. McKelle had us talk about three things: Tone, Style, and Voice. Here are some notes & some exercises you can do to practice and learn more about each one:

Tone

- attitude
- feel
- ambiance

Exercise Ideas:
write a short scene.
write the same scene right after the character's mother died.
write the same scene right after she just got her first kiss.
write the same scene in wartime.
write the same scene right after getting his/her dream job.
**You'll notice you'll put in small details that express the overall attitude.**

Style

- the way words are put together, with syntax
- generally consistent for the writer between work

- sometimes more casual, more formal, etc.
- sometimes very descriptive, sometimes unique in how it is descriptive, sometimes it's metaphysical, etc.

Exercise Ideas:
Pick three authors who have very different styles. Read each for a few minutes, notice how they write stylistically. Then write a scene in the first author's style. Then read the second and write the scene in the second style, and then repeat with the third author. You'll notice what makes the scenes different this way.

Voice  
- projection of character - of the author? of the character?
- the way you actually talk
- authentic, honest, real

Exercise Ideas:
1. Here's what you do. Write down a journal entry for yourself. Try writing in first-person because it's easiest to notice voice that way. Pay attention to how you talk. Then write in another person that you are familiar with how they talk - your mom, dad, grandma, roommate, husband/wife, best friend, annoying neighbor, teacher, pastor, etc. Pick someone you're familiar with who they talk, and write a scene and pay attention to how they would sound. Try it with a tv or book character you know - perhaps Frodo, or "The Doctor".
2. The next step would be to incorporate details about things that they would notice, or think, or like, or dislike. For example, maybe your mom who is kindof OCD about tidiness, would notice small details like, his plate sitting on the floor by the couch where he probably fell asleep pigging out last night. What would the son notice in that situation? Maybe that he saw the movie out on top of the TV and was reminded that he was going to get the second one from Redbox.

How to Research for your Novel

So I came across this article on researching for your fiction. I find that I run into lots of things I need to research - like, how people would wake up before sunrise without technology, how candles were first made,  where names came from, etc. So here's the article I read and here are some of the points I got from it:

- You can't do too much research.
- You can write about what you know. I thought I didn't know anything, and then I thought about my major (Psychology), hard things I've gone through, my parents raise chickens and keep bees, i have brothers and no sisters (perhaps I could develop annoying brother characters in the story), I know about riding horses, I know about art. See, just make a list of your interests and you'll find some things you know about.
- You can find anything on youtube / online. He uses the example of having someone's lungs collapse from a bullet wound, and finding a youtube video of how a doctor would treat that.
- Use all your senses. Pay attention to small details in your other senses. Don't just know what it looks like in the south, but try their food, try out the seasonings they use on their seafood so you know what it's like. Listen to accents so you get a feel for how your character would talk. Know how the sea smells in your scene's area.
- Don't pack it with research. You'll find more than you need & you can leave some out.

I think it's very useful to research - and this is not just for research papers. Or creative non-fiction. I've researched for writing my novels, short stories, even my poetry - I found a specific kind of plant that has many uses, from being smoked for pleasure, to being a poison. And it fit with my poem, added an extra level of meaning. Read How to Research a Novel if you want to read more.

January Contests!

So...it's almost break...what are we going to do with all the time on our hands? Hey, maybe we can all do some writing! Here are some great contests coming up in January to prepare for :D

Writer's Market has a lot of contests on their webpage, just so you know. Here are a couple they told us about:

John Ciardi Prize for Poetry - $1000 and publication (January 15, 2012 postmark)

Iowa Award in Poetry, Fiction & Essay - $1500 and publication (January 31, 2012)

Good luck with your writing!