Friday, September 30, 2011

What I Learned On My Summer Vacation

I am not a natural storyteller. I may have stengths as a writer, but spinning a good yarn is not one of them. Earlier this year, I finished a draft of a novel and much of the criticism I received was along these lines. The story didn't flow well.

I think, in part, this may have been because I was trying to do too much. I had multiple POV characters - one of which was a child - and was trying to tackle themes like faith vs. reason. I can also see now that I didn't clearly identify what was at stake for my characters.

In hopes of learning how to edit my novel, over the summer I read Scene & Structure by Jack Bickham. If you haven't read this book yet, I would highly recommend it. After reading it, I decided that if I am going to keep writing, I better learn how to tell a story. For now, I think this means putting that other story aside, and trying something simpler. I've started another story - one with just one POV character, and, as I write, I am trying to stick fairly closely to the principles I learned from Scene & Structure.

To summarize, Bickham states that there are essentially 2 components to a story - scene, or the part where something happens, and structure, the part where the character reflects on what has happened. According to Bickham, scene and structure usually play out in the following pattern:

Scene

-Statement of goal

-Introduction & development of conflict

-Failure of the character to reach goal, a tactical disaster




Sequel

-Emotion: how the character emotionally responds to the disaster

-Thought- the character reviews the disaster that just happened, analyzes it, and considers a new course of action

-Decision - the character decides what course of action to take to correct the disaster

-Action - the character takes action to pursue the new course of action (goal) and is plunged into another scene


I am trying to implement these patterns in my new WIP. It is harder than I thought it would be, but I find that keeping these concepts in mind is helping me structure my story.


What about you? What have you found to help you master the art of storytelling?

7 comments:

  1. 'I am not a natural storyteller. I may have stengths as a writer, but spinning a good yarn is not one of them.'

    I'm reminded here of the scene in 'The Princess Bride' adaptation with Carol Kane.

    Ahem.


    "LIAR, LIAR! LIAR!'

    (IOW, I believe, based on the writing I've read on your blog, that you most certainly can spin a good yarn.)

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  2. I love this information. This book is on my TBR list, now I for sure need to read it :) I agree with Suze. Sometimes we can't see our own strengths.

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  3. Suze and Angie - in my defense, you didn't read my novel :) But thank you both for the kind words of encouragement ...

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  4. Kim, I did, and I think you are both right. (I should be a politician)

    Your story needed to be tightened...
    But that doesn't mean that you don't tell a good story.

    You are a genius with the English language. I could read your stuff all day (so I hope to see a copy of this new one when your ready for me)

    I find this to be a struggle for me as well. Creating a tight, clean story with good pacing is not for the faint of heart. It takes practice. Lots of practice.

    Good luck! I'm excited for you.

    Suze- that totally made me LOL :D

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  5. Shelly - I just love you. You definitely deserve a gold star for reading my ms : I'll take you up on your offer, as long as you let me read whatever fabulous story you're working on, too.

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  6. I've heard this scene/sequel advice before! It was SO hard to implement at first... GAH! [pulls hair out!] But after I started getting the hang of it, I could see it drastically improving my writing!

    Yay for good advice!!

    P.s. New stalker alert ( ;

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  7. I'm having a similar problem The book that was suggested to me and I found very useful is Larry King's Story Engineering.

    http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/212513005

    Good Luck with the story telling.

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