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Four Useful Lies About Writing

by: Steven Barnes

Most writing �experts� favor a particular way of looking at plot, and will adhere to it for years or an entire career. That�s all well and good, but its important to realize that any way of modeling story is just that�a model, not the depths and living essence of story itself.

Problems arise when young (or experienced!) writers mistake a simplified structure for some deep and eternal truth. It�s much better to examine several structures, see what their strengths and weaknesses are, and try to glimpse the truth they are trying to convey.

The actual �truth� of story is beyond any structure, but they all point in the same direction, toward that misty, hidden metaphorical mountain all storytellers have been climbing since the beginning of time. As long as we don�t mistake the finger for the mountain, the structures can be quite useful indeed.

The worst story model that is at all useful might be� �It has a beginning, middle, and an end.� Well, yes, but so does a piece of string.

More helpfully, try: Objective, Obstacle, Outcome. In other words, a character wants something, and something stands in her way. She tries various things to resolve the difficulty, leading to an eventual climax.

This one is even more useful:

Situation, Character, Objective, Opponent, Disaster. Using the classic James Bond film �Goldfinger� as an model (action films are good for this, because their structure is usually crystal clear):

Situation: When gold is being smuggled from England in large quantities,

Character: Secret Agent 007 James Bond

Objective: Is assigned to find out how it is being done. But little does he know that

Opponent: Industrialist billionaire Auric Goldfinger

Disaster: Is smuggling gold to finance his real operation, the destruction of Fort Knox with an atom bomb!

Can you see how this model helps to clarify the different basic aspects of your story? The hero must have a goal, and there must be forces in opposition. Moreover, the hero�s initial goal and his ultimate goal may well change over the course of the story, as they grow to understand the situation more fully. A story structure like this one implies both internal and external motivations, and sets up a dynamic structure that almost writes itself!

The very best writing structure would be what is known as the �Hero�s Journey� created by Joseph Campbell, and explored by anthropologists and writing mavens around the world. There are numerous interpretations of it, but in essence, it can be represented as:

1)Hero Confronted With A Challenge.
2)The Hero rejects the challenge
3)The Hero accepts the challenge
4)Road of Trials
5)Meeting allies and gaining powers
6) Confront evil and defeat.
7) Dark Night of the Soul
8) Leap of Faith
9) Confront Evil and victory
10) Student Becomes The Teacher

This pattern automatically implies the yearnings, fears, obstacles, efforts, deep depression and exultation of actual human lives. This is the reason that this pattern, more than any other, is useful to writers both new and experienced. Because it mirrors our lives, a writer can most easily adapt her own understandings of life and the universe into her work. If you organize your work into this pattern, readers or viewers all over the world will instantly recognize your efforts as �story.� Whether it is a �good� story will depend entirely on the skill and creativity that you bring to the task�the unquantifiable quality of �art� that is beyond direct description.

There are, of course, many other patterns, and an ambitious writer or student would do well to list several of them side by side, and analyze what they are saying. None of them are �truth,� but all are useful fingers pointing toward that mountain.

About The Author

NY Times bestselling novelist Steven Barnes has lectured on story and creativity from UCLA to the Smithsonian. He created the Lifewriting high-performance system for writers. Get a FREE daily writing tip at: http://www.lifewriting.biz and http://www.lifewrite.com.

This article was posted on December 02, 2005

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More Article Pages 1 - 2

Creative Writing Tips - Have You Established Your Main Character At The Start?
by: Nick Vernon

In the beginning of your story you have to grab your readers� interest and sustain it till the end. Our hook is our character. Readers keep on reading to find out more about the character. To see what he�ll do in the story; how he�ll solve his problems. What his goals are and whether he�ll achieve them.

And because our character is the reason readers become hooked on our stories, establishing him at the start is a must in a short story. And it is essential to establish him at the start because we don�t have the capacity in our limited word length to introduce him at our leisure.

The bond between readers and character has to be developed almost immediately.

You might have a few characters though. How do you decide who your main character will be? A main character is one that drives the story.

Think of it this way� If we were to take him away, there will be no story because it�s his story we are telling. The story will unfold by what is happening or what has happened to him.

When you establish who your main character will be, the next thing to do is to find which of your characters is in the best position to tell the story. Will your main character tell his story or will you give that role to another character?

This is what we call Viewpoint and what we�ll see in more detail in proceeding chapters.

Your main character isn�t necessarily the one who is telling the story; he might not even appear in our story �physically� but will be there through the thoughts of others. So the viewpoint character might be a secondary character.

Whoever is telling the story is the viewpoint character.

The viewpoint character gives the coloring of the story. Whatever this characters says, we will believe. It may or may not be true, according to the main character, but because he isn�t there �physically� to voice his opinions, we will have to take the viewpoint character�s word for it.

In a novel you can play around with viewpoint. You can have several viewpoint characters. In a short story it works best with one.

So your main character, whether he�ll be telling his own story or someone else will be doing it for him, has to be established at the start of your story.

Having said that, let�s see the reasons why the main character may not be telling his own story...

Perhaps our main character is one that readers won�t sympathize or empathize with.
Or the main character will not view highly with our readers
Or the viewpoint character knows all the facts and can tell the story better
Etc.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let me give you an example of a secondary character telling the story of a main character�

Let�s say your secondary character is a psychiatrist and the main character is the patient. Depending on what�s going to go on in the story, we�ll have to choose who�s in a better position to tell it. In this case, I will choose the psychiatrist.

I�ve done this because the patient is confused, being the one with the problems. The psychiatrist knows all the facts and his opinions will make things clearer to readers.

So, as the secondary character (the psychiatrist) unravels the story, we�ll become involved in the main character because it�s the main character�s story that is been told.

This may get a little confusing to the beginner writer. As they write they will have to keep in mind that the secondary character, although he�s telling the story, is NOT our main character.

The secondary character is there to do perform a task. He�s only the voice. It�s the main character we�ll become involved with.

A secondary character doesn�t play such an important role as a main character does. Therefore, information about secondary characters should be kept to a minimum. It�s not his story � it�s the main character�s story and the spotlight must, most times, be kept on the main character.

Take the above example for instance. It�s no relevance to the story how the psychiatrist started his career or where he received his diploma � what�s important, is what he has to say about the main character, his patient.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Introduce your main character straight away, as close to the beginning of the story that�s possible. Enable your readers to form a bond and that will keep them hooked.

Is your main character established at the start of your story?

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