Plot

Plot

While you can consider the characters to be your "actors," you still need to know what to do with them. Just like with characters, there is no story without a plot. Otherwise, you have a boring, meaningless piece of writing.

In one of my earlier posts, I discussed on how to write a great beginning to a story. A plot structure commonly has a beginning, middle, and end. To narrow it down even further, a plot has a beginning event, some rising action, some conflicts, a climax, some falling action, a denouement, and a resolution. In layman's terms, start with a low amount of action, build up the action to make it more intense until you reach the climax, and then lower the intensity again. On a grand scale, the climax is the highest point of your story; it's where the final battle begins and progresses. Read any book or watch any movie. Find out where the climax is; the protagonist engaging the antagonist or an event intense enough that the action drops significantly after.

To construct a plot, you have to figure out what your scenes will be and what are they building up to. They need to be relevant to the climax so that the resolution at the end makes sense. With good descriptive language and a high level of interaction between the characters, your plot will do well.

I noticed in my last post that I forgot to mention what the next topic will be, so I won't forget this one. Next time, we'll discuss setting. Until then, see you.

Characters

So we are about a week away until the majority of us are done with classes. It has been such a busy semester that it feels like I've only been here for a month. I can't say I recall enough of my experiences here to write up a short memoir, but I still have my little projects to look up whenever I need to remember something.

One can say the same about characters. Recall their accomplishments enough and they are just as memorable. To remember them so fondly is what makes a good character to someone.

Characters

A character is a participant of the story, most commonly a person. If you don't know that already, I would like to personally bonk smack you on the head with a thick newspaper.

You can maybe write poetry without characters, but a whole story? Well, there has to be someone or something that needs to be the focus of the story. So without characters, there is no story.

Want an unorthodox example? Take the indie video game NightSky, where you play as an empyreal black ball. Yes, I know this is not a written story, so please bear with me. While NightSky isn't a story with engaging characters or even a structured plot, the main "character" is the ball. It has no personality or motives of its own. It just contains magical properties and rolls across fantastic dream-like landscapes. For what it lacks though, it is still the main focus of the game and is the closest thing to a character at the bare minimum.

As you decide who your characters are, there are a few things you must consider. For example, is one of you r characters narrating the story? If so, will it be the main character or someone else? You may think you can only write a story in first-person with the main character, but this is false. For example, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby was written in first person from the point of view of Jay Gatsby's (the main character) neighbor. A different point of view makes up a very different story. In a crime novel, will you narrate from the point of view of the detective or the criminal?

Next,  you need to decide who your protagonist(s) and antagonist(s) are. The protagonist is not necessarily "good," but just the main character we're following, while the antagonist opposes the protagonist. As mentioned previously, you can have a ruthless criminal as your main character and he/she would still be the protagonist. What often drives a plot is the interaction between the protagonist and the antagonist; the protagonist has a "goal" or "desire" in the story and he/she spends the whole story trying to achieve it. But someone else, the antagonist, tries to keep him/her from that goal/desire. This creates the main conflict between characters, which drives the whole story forward. We'll go deeper into conflict later.

Every main and major character has a motivation driving them. Taking note as the character being the "who," what is the character's desire? How will the character achieve it? Why is he/she trying to achieve it? Again, motivation. This is what builds an interesting character.

And lastly, let's discuss minor characters. Minor characters interact with your major characters in the story, but play little to no role in the main plot. So why use them? Because to create a believable story, you need to bring your world to life with more people. You don't necessarily need to identify their motives or goals as your major characters, but they are still important for helping moving the story forward. Minor characters can be planned out to an extent or create right on the spot as you write. They are a nice little touch to bringing life to your story.

To wrap things up, remember these:

• Is one of your characters the narrator?

• Who are your protagonist(s) and antagonist(s)?

• What is the motivation of the protagonist(s) and antagonist(s)?

• Who will you use as minor characters? How will they move the plot forward?

There is so much I can speak of regarding characters, but we are just looking at the basics for now. Until then, keep a lookout for my next post!

The Beginning

Sometime during school, you might have heard a common sense saying that a story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Probably from your English class, your creative class, etc. Well, yes. There needs to be a beginning, a middle, and an end. In a way, it's similar to the Rule of Thirds in an art class. Usually about every third of the scenes, there is going to be a major point of interest. In other words, a "climax." Your plot all comes down to composition.

The Beginning

 This is going to be a short topic, so keep up.

A certain editor says to make your first six pages as interesting as possible. Some say in three or four pages. Nonetheless, the beginning is probably the most important element in story composition. Why? Well, if you don't pique the reader's interest in the first few pages, you are going to lose that reader. So you better make it as interesting as you can so that the reader will keep reading. In a range of 300-1000 words, you need to set up your world and characters immediately.

Most authors would recommend starting off with an action or a line of dialogue to bring in character involvement immediately. With proper pacing and description, you can create your initial setting in a short and get us to know about important characters right off the bat. And also, to begin your plot.

Do NOT start off with a huge wall of text spouting out blatant exposition. If you don't remember what exposition is, it's background information regarding what led to the events of the story. You heard of "Show, don't tell?" Well, put it this way: all exposition is is "telling." There is no action going on, no characters interacting, and it just tells what happened in the past. Think of whatever fantasy and sci-fi movie in your mind. Does it start off with a long backstory before we get to the story? In most cases, that is not a good storytelling practice. You might bore your audience before you even show them your main protagonist.

So, do the following for the beginning of your story:

• Introduce the reader to at least one character
• Set up your time period and location through the magic of description
• Give a plot point
• Complete one scene
• Avoid massive exposition (it's okay to insert small snippets of exposition to help develop the setting; however, don't just force them out. You want your story to sound natural.

 That's all I have to say about that for now, so I will go to another important next time: characters. Until then, let me know if you have any questions.

Planning Your Story

So close to the end of the semester and I have a lot of catching up to do. That's always comforting, isn't it? And to make matters worse, I'm currently participating in a NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) event called "Camp NaNoWriMo," which is more of a mini-event where you set your own word count to complete in a single month. I chose to go with the standard 50,000 words as in normal NaNoWriMo, but I find that I can pick up the pace after all. To reach that 50K goal, you would have to write a minimum of 1,667 words per day. When I told of this event to some UoH students, they were all, "Aw hell no!" I told them, "It's actually easier than you think. Remember, it's a story where everything applies, not a constructed college essay." In fact, the whole point of NaNoWriMo is to put in as many words as you can. They don't even have to be good words. Just like with any paper, you do some brainstorming, an outline, a roughdraft, and multiple final drafts (depends on much effort you're willing to put in though). If I can catch some sleep again and finally go back to the gym and feel more refreshed, I should put in more labor. How about TWICE as many words per day?

And so, I have a relevant topic for today.

Brainstorming and Planning your Story

 So you want to write a story, perhaps to entertain your friends or to entertain yourself. Hell, maybe even publish it! Well, good for you, but remember that you're setting a hefty goal for yourself. To write out a story by itself, you need to commit some time to actually write it out. To write out a GOOD story though, you need to invest even more time with the changes. We'll get to that later though.

So, what will you write? That's a good question, but remember that the possibilities are endless. It's like with writing a college paper. You pick a topic that you feel most comfortable with and then you go with it the whole way.

Think about your favorite book. Hmm, don't have one? Okay, try a movie or a TV series. Still not doing it for you? What about your favorite video games? Wow, you just hate fun, don't you? Okay, what about a memoir of an event that happened in your life?  Come on, take your pick already!

You do see where I am going with this, right? Look at some of the things around you. Just like thinking about what to draw, garner inspiration from what is available to you. An idea can be very straightforward, like looking at a nice full moon. Or it can be very surreal, playing out as part of a fantasy or even a horror element.

And if you still didn't get ONE idea so far, look over the different story genres. There are adventure, horror, fantasy, suspense, science fiction, young adult fiction, classical literature and probably a lot more to find. So many genres to choose from, but I recommend starting with the one you like the most.

If you really like the topic you're going with, it will be much easier for you to write it out. If you're attempting to go into unknown territory, then expect to be demolished on sight.

You can always write a story for yourself. But if you want other people to read it and even sell your story as a paperback, then you need to identify your target audience. Since everyone who is going to read this post is most likely a digital media major or somewhere close, this should be obvious. In most cases, you're looking for a specific age group. And sometimes, you're going for a specific ethnicity or religion. Definitely be careful with those, because you wouldn't want to get national attention as that one author who hates Buddhists, do you? Nothing worse than infamy when trying to sell yourself, eh?

So now that you got a single idea, you want to start writing immediately, right? Hold your horses there. If you try that, you're most likely going to hit writer's block sooner than you think.

In fact, there are terms at NaNoWriMo for this. The writer who starts out with a single idea and just dives right in is a "pantser;" those who fly by the seat of their pants. In other words, they just wing it without a plan. And then there is the "planner," who comes with the characters, plot, and other important elements before they begin writing. If you plan out your novel, your chances of success will be much higher. Don't just "wing it" if you aren't totally sure you can do it. If you can't even reach 5,000 words, then stop and think about your story more.

As you brainstorm, WRITE DOWN YOUR NOTES! If you don't write them down, you will forget about them. Horrible beginner's mistake. Just don't do it. You can do it the old-fashioned way and keep a paper journal of your ideas. Or you can type it up on your computer and save it to a specialized folder for your story. Microsoft Word is okay, but you will most likely have to save many files into that folder. Isn't it annoying opening separate Word files just to find that one little note you need? Then I recommend Scrivener, which you can purchase and download off the net. Price is around $30-50 depending on if you're running Windows or Mac OSX. If you participate in NaNoWriMo for November, you get a promotional discount. If you WIN in NaNoWriMo, you get an even better discount! Up to 50% off, a really good deal for a word processor that works like a binder.

Pick your characters, setting, and plot. Write down EVERYTHING that comes into mind, even if you don't like it at first. You're not writing the story yet, so it's okay to put something you think is stupid in your notes. If there is one particular idea in your notes in which you can generate even more ideas off of, try coming up with an outline. If you think this story idea works and you like it, go for it. If not, move on and look for a better idea.

So, you finally have a selected idea. You have some characters in mind, a setting to place them in, and a plot to make stuff happen. For the time being, you're all set! You may start thinking about how you will start out your story. And don't forget, it's okay to get more ideas in the process of writing. You can write them down in your notes and you can always change them. Don't think that you're restricted to only what you have. Experiment a bit and see where your story turns up.

So now that we have an idea to go off of, we'll stop for today. For the next post, I'll get into writing out the beginning of your story. Until then, hear from you next time!