I think, when you write a book, you're supposed to have an outline of the plot done in a certain formulaic way. You have your beginning, where the characters are built, and then something happens to change things, and then tension builds up and up and up until something dramatic happens, and then you write a conclusion. Right?
I have a problem. I have the character - and I think she is worth writing about. I'd like to think people will like her, and want to know her story, and maybe even cry over her if I do a good job. I know certain things that will happen to her. I have her life shaped out, and the way she will grow up in the book, mapped out in my head.
But I am missing the great, dramatic, tension-builder event.
This kinda sucks. I've built other characters before and had far more interesting events for them, but for poor Eleni, it seems as if her day-to-day life is (will be) so awful, that it's difficult to imagine the dramatic "big bang" I should need to make a proper plot.
Is there such thing as a gripping book which hasn't got that? Is it possible to ignore the correct formula? I hope so...
Rules are there to be broken ;)
ReplyDeleteWhat you're talking about is one type of narrative structure. Fear not. This isn't the only model you can use in your storytelling. I suppose the first question to ask yourself is: what type or genre of fiction does this story seem to fit? If it's literary fiction, rather than genre/commercial fiction, don't worry too much about choosing a certain model of plot structure; literary fiction is more about the focus on characterisation.
ReplyDeleteOn the one hand I have found that my stories develop as they go along and the end becomes obvious as the story developes. But you're not really talking about an ending are you more the one big thing that binds it all together. I think if your character has enough of a personality then it will all come together. Little things can become very big things once you find the way to comment on them because if the reader cares about the character then they will care about what happens to them. Good luck with this.
ReplyDeleteThank you all. I'm feeling a bit better about it now, I must say! Dare I break the rules? I think I do. We'll see what happens... I have this image in my head now, of playing Yahtzee, throwing the dice and just seeing where they land. Time will tell. I suppose it would be literary fiction (is it a waste of time these days? It doesn't seem to have the selling power of "cheap & cheerful" fiction.) I quite like the idea of the ending just showing itself as I write it. I'm hopeful.
ReplyDeleteIt is always better to follow your instincts, more so in creative writing, which is how you express a train of thought inside you. Write how you like to read, and it becomes so much easier. As you put pen to paper, so will the story develop, so will it speak to you.
ReplyDelete"Dare I break the rules?"
ReplyDeleteI think that's all I do as I don't know a scoobydoo about English writing Rules (let alone the Dutch ones). I just write, write and write some more, to a point where I have to either stop and go back to put it all in a logical order, beef chapters up, polish my characters and more of that..
Remember: "Rules are invented to be broken or evaded."
Just my two pence..
The best book I ever wrote (published next year with luck) began when I attended a seminar. The teacher said - think of a name - now think of an object symbolic to the character. Now write about the character going into a room and picking that up. Now write a page of dialogue by the character on something hidden and something threatening. Finally write about a jeapordy for you character which threatenes the symbolic object. I found that by the time I had finished I knew what I was going to write about in my third book. The teacher was Julie Cohen. She's fantastic.
ReplyDeleteThanks all. It's interesting to hear everyone's perspectives, and when I posted I wondered if people would agree or disagree - I never thought people would have such differing and amazing insights. :)
ReplyDelete