writing the heart of your story (4 page)

BOOK: writing the heart of your story
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A Better Way

 

So how do you avoid the dreaded info dump and backstory? Think about the emotion, feeling, or sensation you want to evoke in your reader. You want to put them in a mood right away. You want to be specific to generate that mood, which means bringing in all the senses and showing your character in the middle of a situation, right off the bat.

And that’s the next essential element: establishing immediately (did I say immediately?) the drives, desires, needs, fears, frustrations of your protagonist. Not only do you need to show her in conflict, in the midst of a situation that showcases all those things, you also need to reveal her heart, hint at her spiritual need, show her vulnerability, and what obstacles are standing in her way. In the first scene? Oh yes. Yes. We’ll look at all of this. And in later chapters I’ll clue you in on the three most crucial things you must know about your character and must hint at in the first scene.

 

 

Think about
. . . going through your first scene and taking out all the backstory. If needed, come up with only one or two lines that tell a little important information you think the reader must know and use those in dialog, if possible. Then read your scene over and see how much better it is. Pull out some of your favorite novels and with a yellow highlighter mark all the backstory in the first scene. If there is any, note how much and in what way it is presented. Learn something neat? Write it down in your notebook.

 

 

Chapter 4: Plot Goals—Seeing Is Believing

 

“A goal is a dream with a deadline.”

~author Napoleon Hill

 

The most essential of essentials in your first scene is setting up your visible plot goal. Did I say visible? Yep. Why? Because if you ask writers what their protagonist’s plot goal is, you will often get answers like “she finds love in the end” or “he finally sees his dream realized.” Those kinds of answers are not easy to visualize. They’re not specific. If I were to write that in a movie script, it would make no sense. Think about how this scene would look on the big screen.

What does “she finds love in the end” translate to visually? Do you see your heroine getting on a plane after quitting her high-glamour New York City job and flying to the jungles of Central America, where her swarthy, ecstatic fiancé is pacing on the torn-up runway awaiting her arrival as a downpour of rain pelts him? You can picture this, right? And so, as you think about your entire book, the ending of the story (which you may not have thought about yet), and most importantly the opening scene, you need to be able to formulate a visible picture of a visible goal. Granted, the details may change. Your heroine may end up getting off the plane in Paris instead of Guatemala City, but you need a visible goal for your protagonist to work toward, and it must be hinted at in the first scene, preferably the first page or two.

 

Why Should I Keep Reading?

 

Sounds crazy? Well, I speak truth! I have been to numerous writing workshops taught by the big-name writing teachers and they are in agreement (and I know that doesn’t mean they are totally right). You can ignore this if you want, but I’m hoping you won’t (because I think you’ll be sorry). Why is this so important? Because too many novels start off and go on for chapters without the reader having a clue as to what the book is about, what the protagonist is doing or what he/she actually wants, or what the protagonist’s goal for the book is. Without any of that, the reader is going to ask “Why should I keep reading?” And rightly so.

When I pick up a novel, if I can’t figure out what the heck the protagonist is up to by the end of the first scene (barring the exception of a prologue that doesn’t feature said protagonist), I start getting antsy. I might push myself through the next chapter ever hopeful, but if I still don’t “get” what the book is about, see some visible goal, care for the poor protagonist who has obstacles the size of the Empire State Building in her way to reach her visible goal, then I usually give up. I can’t tell you how many “great” novels I have started (often recommended by friends) that I have done this with.

I admit I’m a tough critic (you can guess why), but if I find even a few redeeming things in the first chapter, I will give a weak-starting book the benefit of the doubt. But not for long. You’ve got to really reel me in with something—beautiful language, intriguing premise or world, or a hooking mystery—for me to set aside my need to know what the protagonist’s visible goal is. And I don’t think I’m really the exception to the rule. Most readers want to know this too.

Let me mention something that I’ll cover shortly, just in case the “goal” issue seems daunting. The actual goal your protagonist goes after won’t be firmly in place until about one-fourth through the novel. In fact, most well-structured novels and screenplays, don’t introduce a goal at all until that mark. So I am not saying that from scene one the character must know exactly what they want or where they are going—which is the end point of the book. It’s the character’s outer motivation that must be established right away. By revealing his passion, core need, heart’s desire from the opening scene, we get a hint at that goal, what he will go after when the right set of circumstances pushes him through that “door of no return.” A hint is all you need, but it’s needed.

 

Five Basic Goals—That’s All, Folks

 

In a workshop I took with screenwriter/consultant Michael Hague, I noted the point he made that there are really only five general visible goals characters go after (and he’s speaking about movies—his arena—but this does apply to novels as well). Here they are:

 

* The need to win—competition, the love of another, etc.

* The need to stop—someone, something bad from happening, etc.

* The need to escape

* The need to deliver—a message, one’s self, an item, get to a destination (think
Cold Mountain
with Inman’s need to get home. I picture Nicole Kidman speaking in the movie trailer: “Come back. Come back to Cold Mountain.” A perfect example of a visible goal set at the start and followed through to the end.)
* The need to retrieve (think Indiana Jones and just about every action-adventure movie. There’s always a magic ring, a hidden or lost treasure, or a lost love.)

 

Make It Visible or We Can’t See It

 

If you write spiritual character-driven novels like I do, it may be hard to figure out the visible goal. I always seem to start with the spiritual and emotional goals like “she finds peace inside knowing she can’t change certain things.” Okay, well that’s a start. And I know as I plot my novels it’s only a start—because I have to then translate that into plot. Visible plot.

In my relational drama/mystery
Someone to Blame
I wanted the reader, at the end, to care for the antisocial, bad-guy antagonist Billy Thurber. I wanted “the reader to care for him in the end.” Well, that was vague. But I worked out a visible goal (that he actually didn’t know was to occur, but I did), and when he literally uncovers what he has been searching for (or running from), he arrives at the spiritual and emotional place I wanted him to be in. But I had to come up with a visible goal for him.

But wait—he’s not my protagonist. Does that mean . . . ? I hope you have come to the conclusion I’m setting up here, because, yes, not just your protagonist but all your major players have to have a visible goal. If your hero’s goal is to retrieve the lost Ark of the Covenant, then your antagonist’s visible goal is to stop the hero from reaching that goal.

Setting up a plot goal sounds simple, and really, it is. If you have no clue what the plot goal is for your character, then maybe you don’t really have a novel ready to be written.

I’m surprised at how many novels I critique for clients that have no plot goal whatsoever. Throughout the critique I find myself writing comments like “What does your character want? What is her goal? What does she need to do or have happen? Why is she doing this . . . ?”

Oftentimes writers really don’t know what their book is about, or they have a nebulous plot idea that sounds generally intriguing, but when pressed to say what the character’s goal is for the book, they can’t come up with anything. Some may disagree, but a plot without a protagonist with a need (or goal) really is no plot at all. Someone in your book has to want something, right? Well, what is that something?

 

Visible Plot Goal Gets a Twist

 

Now, just when you thought you figured this plot goal stuff out, I want you to think about putting a twist or kink in the goal. This is a very common, standard plot device in many novels and in many great movies you see, and it involves a shift in the protagonist’s plot goal near the start of the story. This may seem confusing, but let me explain.

You want to show your protagonist in her ordinary world in some way at the start (but don’t keep her there too long). Dorothy, in
The Wizard of Oz
, hates living in Kansas, where life is the pits. Even the film is gray and dingy, making the viewer really commiserate with her when she sings “Somewhere over the Rainbow.” What’s Dorothy’s immediate visible goal? Why, to run away to someplace better, someplace safe for her and Toto. But what happens?

Not too long after the story begins, an incident occurs that shifts Dorothy from her original goal and sets her on another path toward a different goal—the goal that’s much more important to her emotionally and spiritually. The tornado whisks her to Munchkinland, and suddenly Dorothy develops a dire need to get home (the place she was initially trying to run away from).

Ah, this is the real visible goal of the story, but it got thrust upon the heroine on her way somewhere else. Like Bugs Bunny always said, “I must have taken a left turn at Albuquerque.” Yes, your hero will get waylaid early on and be forced to take a new direction, and that will introduce the visible plot goal to be reached by the end of the story—the real plot goal of the story.

 

The Real Visible Goal

 

Think about Shrek. All he wants at the start of the story is to get rid of the annoying fairy-tale creatures who are invading his swamp. So he journeys to the center of the kingdom to complain to Lord Farquaad (who came up with that spelling?). But something happens that throws Shrek in a new direction. Sure, the ruler will grant his wish—but only if he goes to rescue Princess Fiona and bring her back. And thus begins Shrek’s journey to his visible goal—which also involves his true inner journey to find his true self.

Think about Maria in
The Sound of Music
. Her initial goal at the convent is to figure out where she fits in and to leave the convent and get a job. She can’t cut it as a nun, and the nuns consider her a problem (I’m humming “How Do You Solve a Problem like Maria?”). But something happens when she becomes a nanny to all those crazy kids. Her visible goal then shifts to want to become a mother to them and find love by marrying the brooding dad, although she thinks her goal is impossible.

No doubt you can come up with a dozen movies and novels in which the hero or heroine starts off wanting one thing but then gets pushed through a door where his visible goal changes. You don’t have to write every novel like this, but I wanted to give you some things to consider. There is nothing wrong with introducing your protagonist in the first scene with a visible goal that will stick until the end.

Frodo is happy sitting around at Bag End in Hobbiton until Gandalf sends him off to Rivendell with the ring. Yet, you could argue that when he gets to Elrond’s lovely home, his plot goal gets a twist when he realizes he is the best person (hobbit?) to take on the task of destroying the ring. That plot twist happens quite late in the book—in fact, at the end of book one, but all the same, Frodo’s plot goal does get a twist that veers him off in the direction needed for him to also reach his spiritual and emotional goals for the story. Your inciting (triggering) incident in the first scene can send your protagonist on her way toward one set goal. But you can also present the goal this way, with a turn at Albuquerque. Both work.

 

All Roads Lead to Rome (or Home?)

 

See, the reason for establishing this visible goal right at the start is it acts as a focusing lens. All roads (scenes) lead to Rome (the goal). So as you write your novel, you will keep this goal in view, and set every obstacle you can to prevent your hero from reaching that goal. It sounds formulaic and simple, but most great novels and films will basically have these elements ingrained in them. Why? Because they are intrinsic to storytelling, and they resonate within us as true story patterns.

Of course, you can do what you want and veer off the tried-and-proven path. And you may come up with a kicker novel. Some have. But don’t knock the path of proven success until you try it. You’ve heard there are no new plot ideas out there, and every story is only a version of ten or so basic plots (or thirty-six dramatic situations, if you go with Georges Polti’s view—get his book The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations first published in 1921 but reprinted in 1981, if you can find a copy).

So, determining your protagonist’s visible plot goal is the first major element needed to shore up that entrance to your mine shaft. The plot goal will propel your character through the dark scary tunnels, the twists and turns inside the mountain, and will eventually lead straight to the mother lode at the heart of your story.

 

 

Think about
. . . playing with your first scenes and decide whether to have your main visible goal be introduced from the start (in the first few pages if possible) or use an inciting incident to throw your protagonist off course and shift him from his initial goal to the real goal of his heart. But keep in mind that the true plot goal is the one your hero will go after all the way to the end of the book, where he will either succeed or fail. That decision is up to you and will be determined by your message or theme.
BOOK: writing the heart of your story
12.13Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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