Wednesday - On Plotting - Using Melodrama

Now we come for some ways to use the unusual talent, unplanned but potent meeting or anything that's over the top. There are a number of ways to harness melodrams and make it work in the book. While looking into this subject, I realized I often used something like this in a story. There have been prophecies that trigger the action, there are talents that are out of the ordinary and there have been meetings between hero and heroine that may be thought unlikely in real life. I may have to break this into two sections since there are a number of ways to use this method to rouse interest in the story and to keep readers from being jerked out of the action and thinking this is impossible and putting the book aside and unread.

1. Show that it works immediately. Introduce your premise in the opening pages and show rather than tell. Make your out of the box premise begin on page one. If your characters have magical qualities show them using them. If there's a prophecy that will be fulfilled show the character or characters learning of it in the beginning. If the hero and heroine are fated to meet, let the reader know right away.

2. Another way can be to show this has worked in the past. This can be woven into the opening pages with the character learning about what happtned in the past. A past event can't be changed, therefore your melodramatic bit must be true. Thus the reader will believe the unbelievable.

3.Choose a believable character and have him believe in the piece of melodrama. Don't have disbelievers enter the picture until the premise is firmly established in the reader's view. Show the ordinary character accepting the premise.

4.Surround the premise with ordinary objects and events. Realistic happenings call for belief. Show the characters doing usual things even though there is this bizarre bit of melodrama hovering in the wings and beneath the action of the story. Don't suddenly jump from one genre into another. If you're writing a book that crosses genres, make this plain from the start. The reader will thank you and will continue on the journey you're telling.

There are four more ways to use the melodramatic moment in the story saved for next weel.