Theme and Structure (Part 4 Larry Brooks notes)

You've read 

Part 1: Developing Story Concept
Part 2: Continuity in Story
Part 3: Never Rescue Your Character


Finally, I can give you Part 4 of my Larry Brooks notes, the final part. 


Part 4: Theme and Structure

Ring Lock Scaffolding picture from this site

Theme: How a reader relates the story you've told to their world view


This includes lessons or morals in children's books, and also universal truths in all books. 


Themes naturally appear with the consequences to your characters' choices.


I think that's all that needs to be said about theme. It's something we inherently understand, and the best advice I've heard about it is not to put a spotlight on it. Readers don't want to be hit over the head with the lesson, but if it happens naturally (like Dumbledore asking Harry not to go looking again for the Mirror of Erised, for "It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.") well then, that's just perfect. But themes don't need to be stated in witty adages, either. They can be implied by what is not said. 


Story Structure:


(Happy/sad story: I had to leave the 2-hour presentation at this point to go to my pitch session with the phenomenal Kirk Shaw, an editor at Covenant Communications. Larry had been nice enough to help me with my pitch a bit during the snack break so he knew when I stood up to leave that I wasn't ditching his class for fun. He called out, "Good luck!" and told everyone I was going to pitch. I walked out of the room to the applause of my peers. It was a very nice send off and I was appropriately pumped for my pitch session [which went AWESOME, by the way. If you ever have the chance to talk to Kirk Shaw, I highly recommend it]. I tell this story to point out that these are not my notes, but borrowed notes taken by my lovely friends, Angie and Beckie. Here I go...)


Know Your Story's Core Essence

That's the little plan I copied down from their notes and below is a more detailed explanation for what it means. 400 pages/60 scenes is just something to shoot for, to help you break things up. In between the parts are plot points also described below. 


Part I- Set up: introduce your hero, state what's at stake, evoke empathy from your reader. Why should they keep reading?


Plot Point 1: inciting incident, first exposure to the stakes. The true nature of the journey unfolds.


Part II- Response to Plot Point 1: after the inciting incident and first exposure to the stakes, what does the character want or need? This response shouldn't be heroic yet because the character hasn't had a chance to grow past her initial flaws. About midway through this response, add even more conflict. 


Midpoint: changes the context of the story. Reader or hero learns something (maybe makes a decision) that changes the stakes.


Part III- Attack the problem: by implementing whatever decision was made during the midpoint. 


Plot Point 2: final piece of the puzzle falls into place. Your hero has learned everything she needs to know. Don't introduce new characters past this point. Internal conflict may be resolved around this time.


Part IV- Resolution: External conflict is conquered or resolved. Wrap up loose ends.


***
Scene Execution


Every scene must be mission driven, must move along the story in at least three ways (i.e. move plot, character development, reveal something, conflict or resolution).


Enter a scene at the last possible moment and leave as early as you can. No going to the bathroom, picking up the floss play-by-play.

That's it for Part 4 of my notes! If the little chart I made doesn't do it for you, you can always go straight to the source and check out Larry Brooks' blog, storyfix.com. I highly recommend it. 


He also has a new book out called Story Engineering which I'm told is story plotting GOLD. 


P.S.es


Funny and delightful interview with Lindsey Leavitt on Operation Awesome today. It's a group interview, which are my favorites because we each got a chance to ask her our itching questions about Princess for Hire and Sean Griswold's Head. She's a phenomenal author who writes in a voice teens understand about topics of import, like how to have an impact on your world. Check out that interview here.


Anne Riley reviews Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini! I love the idea of a girl getting the bizarre urge to kill someone she's just met only to find out they're children of feuding gods. Awesome!


Afterglow contributors Angie Cothran and Beckie Caverhill have a new writing blog with their critique group called Live to Write... Edit When Necessary! They're brand new and already we've got some riveting conversation about adverbs and -ing verbs going on. :) Come join.


Blogger has been haywire, as I'm sure you've noticed. I hope being able to publish this blog is a good sign and that things that appear to be lost will return someday. :) 


If you're able to comment, let me know: what did Blogger eat at your place?

Continuity in Story (more Larry Brooks notes)

Core Competencies

Yesterday I introduced my notes from Larry Brooks' 2-hour presentation on Storytelling and Concept. Today I've got a brush-through of what he's coined as the Six Core Competencies of Storytelling and more about story continuity. 

1) Concept: an evolution of your initial book idea. Concept is richer than an idea and interwoven with theme.


2) Character(ization): this refers to the character arc, the development of the hero through the story. Your character should evoke empathy in the reader.


3) Theme: what in your story points to the human experience, some universal, philosophical truth?


4) Story Structure: the linear, expository unfolding of story. Screen writers are awesome at this because the structure is rigid: 3 acts of story.


5) Scene Execution: is each scene written in context to the big vision of the whole story? Do you know the ending so you can allude all along to it with tight character and plot arcs?


6) Voice: this is the elegant writing we love to read and write. It is poignancy and metaphor and art, even if it's snarky and blunt. Voice usually determines your audience.


You know those books I was talking about yesterday with beautiful writing that made up for the loosely woven plot? They lacked story continuity. In other words, it's obvious when you read them that the authors didn't know the ending for the first half of the book. The ending suddenly came to them and they made it work, usually going back to add in foreshadowing and depth later. 


Writing this way can be difficult because Number 5, Scene Execution, requires a total vision. Otherwise you get scenes where the hero is wandering around looking for some way to solve his problem, or some side character stepping in and wasting the reader's time with something that has zero ramifications for the climax. 


Make the whole novel work with the ending so the reader doesn't get to the end and feel like she's just read two different books. Everything should point to the end: foreshadowing, character fears, symbolism, even the setting. Write every page in context to where the story is going and what it's really about (concept).


One more note about CONCEPT for those of you who read yesterday and felt my notes didn't really tell you how to do this:


Concept begs a question that people are dying to have answered. 
Frame your concept with a question that begins with "What if?"


I played around with this one-line-pitch style and had a heck of a time of it. It takes you a little bit out of plot (all the things that happen) and puts you squarely in the main conflict. 


What if a futuristic society split between a flourishing Capitol and thirteen emaciated Districts conscripts poor children to fight to the death gladiator-style for the entertainment of Capitol residents? What if your little sister was chosen to compete?


More on this two-hour class tomorrow. There was just SO MUCH good stuff! If you haven't already, follow his website, storyfix.com.

P.S.es


On Operation Awesome, Lindsay talks about too many great options in e-readers and compares it to the agent hunt with helpful links for agent research.


Afterglow contributor Kristine Asselin wrote her first review! You've heard of the movie Beastly, but have you read the book yet? Kristine makes a convincing case for why you should read BEASTLY by Alex Flinn.


And a tribute to the SHORT STORY on The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog called Why Write Short Stories?

Sarah M. Eden was one of the most golden finds at the LDStorymakers conference. I have notes from her class (All you need is love... and some other stuff) to be posted sometime in the next few weeks. But for now, I wholeheartedly recommend her website: http://www.sarahmeden.com/ She's posted the hilariously adorable videos she shared of her kids when she was MC-ing the conference. And Afterglow's Angie Cothran raved about Sarah's most recent book (The Kiss of a Stranger) on Monday. 

Developing Story Concept (notes from Larry Brooks' presentation)

As promised, I've got some fun notes from the LDStorymakers Writers Conference I attended this past weekend! 

I'm starting with the storytelling presentation by Larry Brooks of the Storyfix blog because he lays out some important building blocks for story. As the keynote speaker, he spoke about the difficulty of standing out in this market, and the importance of story, even over a beautiful narrative. 


I consider my writing an art, so I like to think it's all about the language. In fact, there are a few examples I can think of where the story wasn't quite crisp but the writing was so enthralling I couldn't put the book down. BUT. But I realize those novels suffered from soggy story and could have been even better had the author been given the tools of story, implemented with a master's stroke. 


So here's how Larry Brooks got us started:
He asked a series of thinking question, beginning with, "What's the most important word in storytelling?" 


I scribbled down "meaning," and he acknowledged there are several that could be considered the most important words. But the word he eventually seemed to settle on was "concept." This he differentiated from "idea," which is like the toddler years of Concept.


Then he asked, "What's the most important moment in any story?" 


I wrote in my notebook, "the moment of enlightenment right after or before the climax." But clearly, he was moving toward a point, so I waited.


He asked, "What is the one thing about your book that makes it the best book at this conference, different from all others? What makes your book special?"


My pen went, "uh..." 


The best book at this conference? That's a seriously tough one. The truth is I didn't think my book was the best book at the conference. And even as much as I loved my story, I didn't think I could put into words what made it special. A one-line pitch, sure. I've crafted dozens. But when asked in an elevator by a literary agent to say in one minute what made my story the best story out there, I would draw a complete blank.


This is where Concept comes in. It's richer than just the idea. It's the evolution of that idea into story.


He then spoke about the Four Arenas of Storytelling Physics (meaning it's practically a physical law for stories to include these):


1) Dramatic tension: conflict and choices


2) Pacing: move the story forward, and not just by the days on a calendar


3) Vicarious Empathy: make the reader understand, relate, and possibly like your characters.


4) Concept: the inherent, compelling nature of the SOUL of the story. 


I really liked that. I'd never thought of the concept as being the story's SOUL before. But it makes sense that a story must have a soul and that that soul would be the thing that makes my book different from all other books. That's what we've got to capture in a short pitch in order to share that soul with other people, to get them excited about our story before they choose to sit down for hours with the whole thing.


Okay, this is getting long, so I'll share a little more of my notes from Larry Brooks tomorrow. Meanwhile, you can check out storyfix.com for more of his confident literary awesomeness. His blog was voted into the 101 Best Blogs of 2010 by Writers Digest. 

P.S.es


GREAT NEWS!! Matthew Rush just joined Afterglow Book Reviews as a contributor. We now have a male reviewer who is not my husband. I'm very stoked about this (no offense to my honey). Read Matt's other announcements today.  


We've added a couple new and stellar writer/readers to Afterglow's Reviewers page. 


Angie Cothran, Shallee McArthur, and Kris Asselin are now on board. So be sure to stop by, read the new reviews, and welcome the newbies with your comments.


For a laugh, check this out! Afterglow contributor Angie Cothran posted one of my favorite moments at the LDStorymakers Conference: the MC's seven-year-old defining literary genres. (e.g. Romance - "That ones easy. If there is kissing it's romance, if there is more kissing than talking it's gross romance.")


Also, did you know you can now read Elana Johnson's first two chapters of POSSESSION?!! Yeah! Here they are. 


Kristal Shaff of Operation Awesome is passing along some fabulous opportunities for writers, including a chance to win a Kindle from publisher Angry Robot. 


Enter to win Break, Hex Hall, or The Liar Society here!

Fun with Words at Larry Brooks' Blog

That was fun! Storyfix.com has a wordplay game going today (blog run by Larry Brooks). Compound words (or just long words) that, when separated, create a completely different mental picture. My examples:



"Katrina Lantz May 26, 2010 at 10:46 am

Okay, here goes:


hand some: a demand you hear from your children when they catch you eating chocolate


bur lap: the feeling on your tongue when you lick a kiwi


e pic: your internet avatar


lip stick: a type of stick insect characterized by its sassy comebacks


come back: the futile cry of a man or woman who has just been dumped unexpectedly


in sect: the status of persons who are in with the in-crowd


defib rilator: a realtor who is incapable both of lying and spelling properly.


And with that last non-word, I bow out."

Check out his blog and contribute to the game HERE.