Wednesday's Writer's Tip - Still In The Middle

When re-reading Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V Swain, I've been exploring what to do when the middle lags, sags or pulls me to a halt. This quote made me sit up and say OH, yes.

"Drop a corpse through the roof."  Does this literally mean throwing a body into the story. Then it came to me. What Mr. Swain means is throw in something that's totally unexpected. Of course, this shouldn't be completely something new to the author but a new reason to drive the story forward.

This is the moment, for me when I'm thinking the story is losing steam and suddenly a twist on one of the elements arises. I think, oh, yes, this has to go in. This is the reason to move to the next peak in the story. For me this often happens when I'm telling myself the story by writing what I call is the chapter synopsis, a guide to keep me moving forward to the end. Sometimes what happens surprises me but I know this is what will help me drive the story to the end.

What sort of things does this mean? The arrival of someone with some information the hero or heroine needs to know. The sight of something startling that drives the story toward the end. Such a moment occurred when writing Code Blue. I was chugging toward the end and the villain is waiting for the heroine. He ahs been leaving her gifts as each person she knows is killed. They seem innocent but of course they're not. Then she comes home from her three to eleven shift at the hospital to find a nightgown hanging on her porch, swaying in the breeze. Then she knows and she is terrified. That nightgown drives the story to the climax.

So don't be afraid to throw in something unexpected, something that changes innocence to danger. "Drop a corpse through the roof."

Wednesday's Writer's Tip - In The Middle

Once the beginning of the story is set then comes to the middle. Now middles can sag or they can operate at a fast rush that leaves no time for the reader to breathe. There are things about the middle that should be there. The middle is the greatest part of the story.

Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V Swain gives a lot of hints about how to keep the middle moving forward toward the object, what the main character or character wants or doesn't want.

The middle of the story is made up of scenes and sequels. The middle of the story means changes and adjustments. So have your hero, heroine or even the villain face some change. This can be a small change and that presents a problem that must be solved or the character may have to adjust to that change.

Don't stand still. We've all read stories where it seems as though the same scene is repeated over and over again. Nothing changes. The character does the same things, says the same things. There is no adjustment to what the change has brought about. The reader becomes bored. Sometimes the author does as well.

New information arrives. The character reacts. They solve a small segment of the problem only to have something else arise. The middle builds from scene to scene sort of like climbing stairs to reach the moment when it's down the ramp on the other side. Each change will move the story closer to the end. Change is what moves the story closer to the moment when the character or characters receive or lost what they started out to find.

More on Middles next week.

Wednesday's Writer's Tip - Beginnings - The characters

Here we have more on the beginnings of a story. I'm re-reading Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V Swain, a book I've found most helpful in my writing career.

Now about characters. Every story needs people unless you're doing something experimental. I once wrote a story with a park bench as the main character. Needless to say this story never went anywhere but I had fun with the attempt.

When introducing characters into the story, one thing to remember is not to introduce casts of thousands in the first few pages. Too many characters makes the reader wonder who the story is about. In the beginning there are a few characters who need to be seen. These include the hero, heroine and the villain. Now they don't have to be shown in action during the early pages but showing them doing something to or about the heroine or hero can add a punch to your story. "Code Blue" opens in the villain's viewpoint and introduces the heroine quickly. By the second scene, the hero is at least mentioned by name.

An impression of the character needs to be shown. Show them in action. Show them through a description that allows the reader to know why they are and what they are doing. Be realistic here. Little bits of description to show who they are. In "Shattered Dreams, the heroine is shown entering her medical office and getting ready to see patients. She is late because of an emergency that kept her at the hospital. The hero is sort of mentioned. All we know about him at this point is that he is a new hospital hire coming in for a physical and her secretary/nurse can't reach him to reschedule his appointment.

Of course, one has to thread in some hints about the back story. This can be difficult to bring into view. Long passages aren't needed. Just a few lines can often do the job. Be careful to keep the back story in the present through a piece of memory. Something in the present that triggers a memory of what happened in the past. In "Prescription For Love." The heroine is introduced to the hero, a new doctor on staff. In a short passage, she recalls their first meeting, one that didn't go well.  Just remember to keep this short and simple. Nothing pulls a reader out of a story that a going back in time for pages and pages. Remember the impact on the present is what is important.

Wednesday's Writer"s Tip - Elements of a story

I am on my second copy of Techniques Of The Selling Writer by Dwight V Swain and there is one thing I've done as I plan my stories that he suggests. I highly recommend this technique. This is something I sit down and do with every new story I write. There are times when I don't do this when beginning a rough draft but by the time I end this phase of the story, I know I have to go back and do this.

Recently I started a story and was six chapters into the rough draft and suddenly I realized there were dozens of contradictions in the story and there were plot holes that would need a lot of work to plug. After hitting myself upside the head, I grabbed Techniques of the Selling Writer and the book opened to what I needed to do.

Mr. Swain speaks of the 5 elements needed for a story. Character, Situation, Objective, Opponent and Disaster. Then there is the way to look at these elements to make the story work. He also speaks of the focus character. Remember this doesn't mean the Viewpoint character but this focus character can have viewpoint scenes. The method involves making the five elements into two sentences. One is a statement, the other a question. Sounds simple and it is and isn't. What this does is make you think about your story.

For the story I was having trouble, here is what I finally came up with. Finding exactly what to put took a day of study and a lot of torn up copies of the sentence/question idea. The good thing is once I had this down I was able to really roll on the story and it's moving rapidly toward conclusion.

Ten years ago, Jules Grayson vowed never to return to the town where he'd learned not to trust and had been falsely accused of theft, but business and a friend's wedding bring him back. Can he learn to trust again when the only girl to turn him down wants to help as he faces a second accusation from the past that will force him to take a step that will change his life forever?

The five elements are there. The situation is the vow never to return. Jules Grayson is the character and the objective is the business and the wedding. The objective is learning to trust again and the disaster is the second accusation.

This wasn't an easy one to write. I had also tried to use the girl, Grace Sutton as the focus character and what I learned was Jules had the most to lose and win from the events in the story. I will admit to writing this two prong attack probably 20 times before I found the one that brought all the elements of the story into focus so I could write the story.

Wednesday's Writer's Tip - Decisions and Sequels

Last week was a look at Scenes and Disasters. Something hasto follw or the story will end in disaster for the character or characters essential to the story. Following a disaster or an event that doesn't end as the focus character of the scene wishes, this character must make some kind of a decision. Will they continue to pursue their goal or will they change goals? Will they continue on the path they've set forth on to reach their goal or change the path but keep the original goal in view?

This is the decision moment and is designed to lure the reader forward. The sequel begins with a reaction. This can be an I'll never succeed sort of time, rather like a minor dark moment, The object of their affection has walked away. The murderer had struck again. The evil wizard has negated the spell. The attempt to escape being drawn into the worm hole has failed. Any number of disasters for the hero, heroine and perhaps even the villain.

Once the focus character reacts her or she must weigh their options. What am I going to do now? Each examination of choices will be different depending on the nature of the focus character. No matter how long they debate with themselves or others, they must take the next step.

This is a decision and that means moving forward. This could be a flight or fight reaction. This could be a stubborn moment but this will lead to the next scene where they are the focus character or not.

This sequel can be short or long but remember it's the bait you're dangling before a reader hoping to hook them to continue to read more. So after the big dramatic scene, don't forget the sequel. Dangle your bait and lure the reader to read on and hopefully they will want to read more of your stories.

Many thanks to Dwight V Swain and Techniques Of The Selling Writer for helping me understand what I sometimes forgot to develop in my stories.

Wednesday's Writer's Tip - Motivation and Reaction

Took me a long time to understand this bit from Techniques of a Selling Writer by Dwight V Swain. It's not that I didn't use this technique when writing my stories. This was one of the books I read early on in my writing career and I always regretted coming to the fiction world when I was a wife and mother and never had a chance to attend a course given by the author of this book on writing. Years later I'm still using what's taught in this book but now it's become rather automatic and while reading this again, I really had to think.

We all know characters are motivated by many things. Some of them stem back to their early days. When I first began to write I looked at motivation as belonging to the large picture. Why did they choose a particular goal? What motivated a character to act in a certain way? I selected a motive for each of the major characters in the story and went on from there, not bothering to look at what motivated them to react to each small thing to enter their environment. This worked early on but then there are the small reactions that add meat to the story.

What I read in this great book taught me how to look at each reaction to some stimuli. Then what I was writing became confusing since I'd forgotten one thing. Each scene in the story has a focus character. I was doing this for every main character in a scene and muddied the waters. While reading this section of Techniques of the Selling Writer, I realized that while two or more of the main characters were in a scene, only one could be the focus character for that scene. So here goes what I learned to steer me into making the right choices for the action.

The first sentence in the sequence does not have the focus character's name, description, or any element of them. For example - A shot rang out. Tamara slid to the floor.  Or something like this - Jim's mouth made promises. Sally's body trembled as she wondered if she wanted to accept. These simple sentences can be broken apart into showing the sequence step by step and enhancing the story. Doing this often enough and mastery happens. Suddenly what was muddy becomes clear and the reader will learn a lot about the focus character. Move to the next scene and choose another character for the focus of that scene. The story builds and the emotional impact increases.