The Contract between author and reader
Characters
Point of View
Setting
Scene as the building block
Plot

Exercises

It has been said by more than one writing instructor that you cannot teach a person to write. Other than that whole scenario being an oddity in itself, I believe that it is wrong. Writing can certainly be taught. Novel writing can be taught. Short story writing can be taught. The reason I am certain it can be taught is that none of us were born writing novels. Every great writer learned the skills necessary to be a great writer. That's not saying that there aren't some related abilities that we cannot teach. There are.

There has to be present a certain ability to use the language, but even that is uncertain as to the amount that is needed. It was once thought that good writing had to be drawn from a certain clustering of words and concepts. Those words and concepts were most often found and fondled in college and university English departments. Some people still believe that. They are most often found in college and university English departments.

But we have had so many thousands of examples of outstanding writing that do not conform to that belief that most reasonable people now understand that good writing is not required to contain within it any particular vocabulary or references to obscure metaphors or ancient gods and goddesses that haven't held credibility for a thousand years.

Some people have a far greater use of the subtleties and nuances of language. Some have great facility in the selection and use of just the right word or group of words to tickle our imaginations or our funny bone when we read them. But there is no indication that that subtlety is necessary to great writing, or even to good writing. It adds another dimension that can be very useful in certain occasions, but it is just another flavor, not the only ice cream flavor worth tasting.

What perhaps cannot be taught is how to tell a story. It's kind of like being able to tell a joke. Some people are great at it, and some people can slaughter a good joke. Related to the ability to tell a story is having an innate understanding of the importance of the story--why it is important that it be told. Just as there are kids' jokes, teenagers' jokes and adult jokes, there are stories with different levels of meaning and significance. Recognition and discrimination of those different levels and the ability to construct stories at different levels may be an ability that cannot be taught. Certainly, it may not be taught in a 11 week workshop, though it most certainly can be learned over a lifetime.

We will deal with the craft of writing. Those concepts, principles and techniques that can be described and taught. We will look at those components that are necessary for a good story. And through your practicing of those techniques and our examination of your writing, we will help you develop a competence in the use of various techniques. In the end, I expect that you will become acquainted with new concepts, develop new skills and improve skills you already have that will give you a set of tools to make the best of your storytelling abilities.

THE CONTRACT between author and reader

Narrative fiction is storytelling. When you as an author write a story of fiction and the reader sits down to read your story, the two of you have entered into a contract that is implied between all readers and the authors of the books they read. It is a well understood but rarely verbalized contract that is contained in the book itself. It is an abstract contract, but binding on the author. The reader can walk out of the contract at any moment with the least provocation, with no penalty. If the contract is broken, the penalty is always against you as the author. The contract goes like this.

The author agrees: To tell a story worth the reader's purchase price of the book and his investment of time and effort. A story of things more important, more entertaining, more dramatic, more tragic and more thrilling than the reader's everyday life. The author agrees to provide a story that any reasonable person would agree is a good book.

The reader agrees: To purchase your book and to devote his time and effort to attempting to read it, when and if he gets around to it. Because it is a story, he expects things to happen. He agrees to suspend his conscious connection to the real world (suspend his disbelief) in order to enter into the world of the story, unless it bores him, he finds it lacks credibility, he disagrees with the point he thinks you are trying to make, he dislikes the characters or the setting or the things that happen, he just doesn't care for it, or something better comes along for him to do. If he does read it, it is his expectation that he will be able to experience your story as a virtual reality that in the end leaves him knowing something he didn't and feeling better than he did when he began it.

All of you who still want to be writers, proceed to the next point.

CHARACTERS: All stories are about people

We might discuss the theme of a story, we might analyze its plot structure, we might speculate on its social significance, or pontificate on its value as art. But the story is told about and through people. What they do, what is done to them, how they react, the consequences of their actions, the struggles they face, how well they succeed in meeting the challenges they face, and their ultimate fate. All the other levels of meaning are just abstractions from the story or tools we use to measure the story after it has been told.

The people in our writing are called characters. There are major characters and minor characters and there are walk-on characters. All of them must be real characters in our minds as we read the story. None can be one-dimensional cardboard cutouts, because as writers we are creating a real, credible world for the reader to enter into and stay until the story is concluded.

The story is about the major characters, and more specifically, usually about one main character. Just as in a movie cast, a play or a TV production, the main character can be the center of the story, or there can be an ensemble of characters each of whom we follow with more or less equal caring. Most stories have one main character that we follow all the way from beginning to the end. In some stories we may follow one character for a while and then another character for a while, switching among these and perhaps several other characters. That's where the concept of ensemble comes into play.

The minor characters and the walk-ons are there simply to allow you to tell the story of the main character. You use them to do things (or not do things that should be done) to impact your main character and for your main character to play off of. In some ways they are very much like setting -- sentient, animated setting.

An essential requirement of the story is that the main character be someone with whom the reader can feel empathy, can show compassion, can admire, and someone with whom the reader can identify at least for the duration of the story. If your main character is written successfully, the reader will be experiencing the story through identity with the main character and will see what the main character sees and feel what the main character feels. The reader must have a personal emotional investment in what happens to the main character.

Once a character is created, that character must think and act as if he were real. For our purposes the character is real. In order for you to make the character real, you must understand who the character is, his motivations, his prejudices, his capabilities, and his weaknesses. Then as the character acts in the story, his action must be both realistic and credible to him as a person. When that character speaks, it must be him speaking and not you as the author.

It is common for authors to talk about their characters taking on a life of their own. This is the way it should be. Authors also talk about characters taking over a story and turning it in a different direction than the one the author had intended it to go. This is a normal part of writing and should not be resisted. Let your characters do what they will do. They are a reflection of the workings of your mind, and you should pay attention to what your mind is trying to tell you. You have to trust your deeper instincts.

POINT OF VIEW

William Sloane in The Craft of Writing talks about the "means of perception," the way in which the author lets the reader see the story that is being told. You might think of a camera and a narrator in a movie. What is the angle of view of the camera? Is it from above, looking down on the tops of their heads as the characters play out the story? Let's hope not. The camera angle is selected to let the audience see what is happening, but to let them see it with the greatest involvement and emotional impact.

The angle of greatest impact is usually one that makes you as the viewer feel as if you are in the middle of the action, or perhaps the object of the action, about to be run over, chased down, dropped from a great height . . . you get the idea. If you have succeeded in having the reader identify with the main character, then the main character's perspective should be the most effective point of view and the point of view through which the reader most effectively experiences the story.

There are some situations in which the point of view can shift temporarily to another character, as in the case of an ensemble of main characters. We'll talk of those later. Right now it is important to understand that point of view is your reader's view into the story. It must involve the reader, it must be consistent, and it must be effective.

When you are thinking about establishing the point of view from which your reader will be seeing the story, think of the voice you want your reader to be hearing in her head telling the story.

SETTING

Setting is where your story takes place. It is the physical location of the dramatic action. Think of it as the stage or movie set. Setting also can be an historic period, such as the Middle Ages. Some stories work for one point in time in our history, but will not work at another point in time. The setting for your story should be selected for its relevance to the story, and the elements of the setting that are emphasized should be selected because of their key role in telling the story.

Sometimes a setting is so interesting and important to a story that it becomes a character in itself. It has been said that what makes Southern stories so unique is that they could happen nowhere but in the South. The setting of the South is essential to the telling of a Southern story. Done well, it becomes a character. Try to tell the same story in California, and it wouldn't work. Think also of the Jack London stories (The Call of the Wild, etc.) in which the setting is so strong an influence that it actually becomes a character. In the Jack London stories there is a single human character against the forces of nature (the setting).

PLOT

Plot is a related sequence of events that lead to a conclusion. An event in a plot is the action. The main character acts or is acted upon, creating more action. The engine that powers the plot is the characters. The personalities of the characters determine the kind of action they take when given choices.

The plot is an artificial construct, an abstraction of the story. It can be seen as a tool, a kind of measurement instrument we use to determine the balance, proportions, and pace of a story. There are different versions of plot. Some say there are 20 basic plots, others say there are seven. I think there is basically one. Your character has a problem, she tries to solve it, she runs into difficulties that test her bravery / resolve / moral fiber, the conflict between her desire for resolution and the obstacles in her path reaches a crescendo, there is a major crisis from which the character emerges victorious or defeated, but in either event her life is changed.

This sequence of events is normally divided into three segments:

1. The Beginning in which the main character and the problem are introduced, defined and made real for the reader. Empathy for the main character is built in the reader. The conflict must be a real, serious threat to the wellbeing and happiness of the main character. The more serious the threat, the higher the stakes for the reader. At the end of this first segment of plot some event occurs that changes the course the story has been taking. This is called the First Plot Point and normally occurs 1/4 to 1/3 of the way through the story. In many good stories, you can actually do a page count and verify this.

2. The Middle is a series of events that serve to build the conflict, further defining the strengths and weaknesses, desires and motivations of your main character and the seriousness of the threat to the character and of the consequences of defeat. The main character tries a series of actions that do not remove the threat. In fact, with each action taken by the main character, the threat is worsened and deepened.

If you have read books or watched movies that seem to grow dull and drag on and on, it is usually because of flaws in the middle portion. Of course, it can also be because you just don't give a damn about what happens to anybody in the story, but the most common flaw is a lack of escalating action and threat.

At a point about 2/3 to 3/4 through the story, the conflict reaches a second major crisis point in which the main character takes a decisive action that results in almost total defeat and destruction. Everything that has been tried to this point has resulted in the character and everything she holds dear being placed in terrible jeopardy. This is the Second Plot Point. It is important that by the second plot point it appears to the reader that there is no way out for the character. Defeat looks to be unavoidable. No help is on the way. There is no champion on a white horse. The is no supernatural intervention.

3. The Ending begins at the second plot point. The story turns in a new direction. The only way the character can avoid total destruction and ultimately merge triumphant is for her to reach deep in her character, look down into her inner self and find a strength that she can summon forth, a strength that perhaps she did not know she had, that will, after a frightening final conflict result in the defeat of the threat -- or perhaps not. As a result of this ordeal, the character will have changed and grown.

Be advised that the conclusion must derive from all the premises that have been laid down, must be consistent with the characters and everything that has gone before, and should be in some way satisfying to the reader. The best endings are those that take the reader by surprise but which when examined are logically consistent with the facts of the character and the story as they have been developed and could have been seen coming, after the fact, by a really astute, intelligent and sensitive reader, which you have now convinced your reader he is -- even though he didn't see it coming.

Some ways of making your plot exciting:

• Create an incident in your story which moves the action forward and turns it in an unexpected direction.
• Put a time limit on the main character to solve her problem.
• Make the price of failure very high for the main character.
• Make the cost of success very high for the main character.

SCENE

The story is played out in a series of short segments called scenes. Think of the way a movie is filmed.

Scene one: We are at a riverboat landing somewhere on the great Mississippi River. Our heroine is trying desperately to collect her baggage on the pier. The riverboat with her on board was a day late arriving at this town which is a critical juncture in the trip west. The last stage coach going west for the next three weeks is due to leave at noon, and it's eleven-fifty now. She appears desperate to get to the stage on time, implying that the life of an innocent child depends on it. The dock hands won't cooperate and it looks as if her only assistance will have to come from a very unreliable looking loafer. In the background we can hear the stage coach driver yelling for all to board, horses whinnying and stamping their feet. After much fumbling, dropping things, and anxious moments, our heroine manages to gather her belongings, catch the attention of the stage coach driver and get on board. The unreliable, suspicious looking loafer gets on board with her. The driver yells a command to the horses, whistles, and the stage pulls out.

In this example we can see that a scene is a really short story. It has a beginning in which the situation is defined. It has characters who are in conflict over some issue of great importance to our main character and to the reader. It has a middle section of struggle. And it has the resolution. In a movie this sequence of events can take a few seconds or a few minutes. The same with the written story. Scenes can be of whatever length is needed at that point in the story.

Each scene is followed by another scene with a connecting transition expressed or implied. In the case of the example, the next scene might well be inside the stage coach at a point some seconds or minutes later. Inside the coach are our heroine, the suspicious looking loafer, and whatever other characters are needed for the scene to serve its function. No more and no fewer. You can imagine for yourself the possible conversations that might be taking place, the sounds, the movement, what might be established and resolved in this new scene.

The entire story is played out in a sequence of scenes with whatever transitional material is needed to connect the scenes. It is in the scenes that all action takes place, not in the transitions. It is through the actions in the scenes that we experience the entire story.

Each scene follows from the one before it and leads to the one after. Each scene makes its own specific contribution to the story but each scene builds on those before it and prepares for the next. There is a cumulative effect as the scenes are played out. Plots and motives begin to take shape and reveal themselves. Characters are defined, lines are drawn, alliances formed, the action plays out. This continues until the story concludes.

There is no formula or rule that governs the number of scenes in a story. Some stories have hundreds. It could be argued that Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea had one. The scene is structured to serve its function.

You can use the scene to help you write in definable chunks. Stories are written one scene at a time. Organizing your thoughts from this perspective helps to keep your writing focused and your progress moving in a forward direction.

Exercises:

1. Write a short scene from your story from the perspective of your main character. Have your character say and do something that shows his/her best quality. Don't tell us what the best quality is, show us. Post your response to the Advanced Fiction Topics discussion list.

2. Writer the same short scene from the perspective of someone who secretly dislikes, distrusts, and generally hates the main character. Post your response to the Advanced Fiction Topics discussion list.

3. Write a one sentence description of the plot of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Send your response to my email directly. Do NOT post it to the discussion list.

4. Write a one sentence description of the plot of Disney's The Lion King. Send your response to my email directly. Do NOT post it to the discussion list.

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