Story Structure, Character Structure

The past two weeks I've taken off from writing and planning book two in the Lizzie Peterson saga. In part that's because I just needed a break from editing, in part because I was deep into writing several articles for my day job as a writer and editor, and in part because I'm doing some serious research into story structure. Oh, and into publishing, but that's a different post.

I've been studying Larry Brooks' book, Story Engineering: Mastering the 6 Core Competencies of Successful Writing. You can see the cover to the right.

Larry has some very inventive ideas about what makes up a story, character, theme, conflict, concept, and structure. It's got me thinking and rethinking and thinking some more. That's the danger with doing too much research into how to craft stories!   ;-)

So, combine this with Dan Wells' presentation at BYU's LTUE symposium two years ago, and you have two very nice approaches to the craft of story. Add Katherine Farmer's research on characters (no direct link to her, but a summary at my friend, Matt Tandy's blog), and you have several key concepts to consider when writing.

What I like about Larry's book, especially when I incorporate my own ideas and others' on story, is that it has the potential to make writing much, much more efficient, powerful, and engaging on all levels.

I'm naturally gifted at plot and dialogue, but I struggle a bit with character (except strong female characters, interestingly enough) and theme.

Now, I'm beginning to see how to see, delve into, and craft an entire world story before I even begin to type it. It's a fascinating journey.

So, if you are interested in really improving your craft, I recommend studying (not reading) Larry's book, watching Dan's presentation a few times, and finding someone who can share with you Katherine's methods (I don't want to give too much because she's writing a book on it and that might preempt her. But if you want to get together sometime, I can teach you what I know.)

What you need to understand is that story is structure, as Tracy Hickman and so many have told me. I've blundered my way through enough free writing and enough outlines to story that still lacked something that I've realized there is a deep, compelling need for a story to work on multiple levels.

The master writer, the truly gifted writer, I believe, is gifted not because she just intrinsically knows all this, but because she learns the craft so deeply that she can apply it and exercise it and manipulate it in the creation of the story. And that means fewer revisions, better stories that people want to read, and greater success as a writer.

That's a fantastic goal.

Lessons Learned from Rushing

The past few weeks I raced in an attempt to get my middle grade book finished and out to readers in time for good feedback. The reason was because I was hoping to pitch to a specific publisher at a specific event.

Well, I didn't get my book quite finished, I did sent it out to some friends for review but had to attach caveats explaining why it wasn't finished or polished, and then discovered that the individual I was going to pitch to wasn't going to be available as I had thought.

I was a bit frustrated in how the whole process got to where it was, but in the end it turned out better than I had expected. But I learned a few things about setting goals and deadlines in the end.

1. Deadlines can be useful things. They help you push through a lot of barriers, whether self imposed or otherwise, so that you can accomplish great things.

2. Even so, don't let deadlines rule your life. Deadlines can also create a lot of stress, and sometimes that stress is unnecessary because of ill management or because something changes in someone else's schedule and you didn't need to bother. Or, if you had analyzed things a little better, you'd have seen there was a different route to take to begin with.

3. Deadlines, if properly managed, can help you produce great work. If ill managed, they can cause you to submit before your work is ready, and that means people won't have a chance at first impression with the best you can offer.

4. Analyze those deadlines. Be flexible with arbitrary deadlines. I guess this is a two parter: (A.) Don't waffle if you don't need to. You've got to write in order to publish, obviously, but, (B.) You also can't control everything out there. Sometimes things beyond your control change the environment for which your deadline was created. If you can be flexible, you won't be unnecessarily disappointed. Well, maybe that's not always true. But you can adjust and plan out your life with greater happiness if you do.

5. If someone gives you a deadline--a serious deadline that won't shift in time--then start as early as possible to meet that deadline. Figure out what you've got to accomplish by the calendar, either on a daily or weekly basis, and then make sure you do everything you can to meet those deadlines. When a publisher or agent sets those deadlines for you, then you are in a whole different ball game.

So, use deadlines, and worked toward them. But try and make them realistic so you don't feel like you're letting yourself down. I did that some this summer, and it was a bummer. If I'd done a better job at analyzing the calendar, I would have either adjusted my schedule or my self-imposed deadlines. Either way, I'd feel better about what I did and how I went about it.

Nevertheless, I feel like I had divine help in the end. Oh, the deadline essentially just got pushed back two weeks, but it gives me a greater chance of accomplishing what I've got to do--get the draft finished, out to reviewers, and edited. Oh boy, there's still a lot to do! Guess I'll be putting in some late nights!

So what was it I learned this week???

On other news, I attended a class this week on story craft using the ice cream cone model of character interplay created by Katie Farmer, and discovered why there may be some major issues with my epic fantasy. More on that in a few days.