***
Boy, does Tex Thompson
know how to put new twists on creative writing issues – witness such
discussions as her analogy of book revision to Dante’s tour of the Inferno
which I blogged about earlier this year. She didn’t disappoint with a world
premiere of her newest program – Juice Box Hero: Squeezing Plot from
Character – at this month’s meeting of the Writers Guild of Texas .
Because nothing can equal the actual experience of being in the same room with Tex, I’ll only provide a brief summary in this post. If you want to hear the full deal, you’ll have to urge your own writing group to book her next performance.
Which comes first in creative writing – character or plot -- she asked her audience. The fact is, both are essential, but putting too much emphasis on either results in a story as dry as a squeezed-out lemon.
Because nothing can equal the actual experience of being in the same room with Tex, I’ll only provide a brief summary in this post. If you want to hear the full deal, you’ll have to urge your own writing group to book her next performance.
Which comes first in creative writing – character or plot -- she asked her audience. The fact is, both are essential, but putting too much emphasis on either results in a story as dry as a squeezed-out lemon.
Enter Tex’s “10 Big Ideas” for extracting the maximum juice from
both elements:
1. Dial up the contrast
Whether it’s contrast between the main character and another, between characters and their environment, or a character’s “other self” – the person they want (or fear) to be, “this works for any manuscript problem,” Tex assured us. “If the contrast has been sitting at a 3, try dialing it up to 11.”
1. Dial up the contrast
Whether it’s contrast between the main character and another, between characters and their environment, or a character’s “other self” – the person they want (or fear) to be, “this works for any manuscript problem,” Tex assured us. “If the contrast has been sitting at a 3, try dialing it up to 11.”
2. Turn “and then” into “but” or “so” (or “therefore”)
If the plot has turned into what I once heard an editor call “a bus ride” (“A happens and then B happens”) try changing the format to “A happens, but then B happens.” Or “A happens, therefore B happens,” to create a domino effect of consequences.
3. Take away the “reasonable” option or add a conflicting gain
If the plot has turned into what I once heard an editor call “a bus ride” (“A happens and then B happens”) try changing the format to “A happens, but then B happens.” Or “A happens, therefore B happens,” to create a domino effect of consequences.
3. Take away the “reasonable” option or add a conflicting gain
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| mage: pixabay |
Either forget that old “lesser of two
evils” choice by taking the “right” choice completely off the table. Or, set up
“mutually exclusive good” choices. And yes, you can do both!
4. Add a different kind of conflict
Given the three major kinds of conflict characters can experience -- internal, interpersonal, and external – give them more than one. The effect of internal and interpersonal conflicts is to elicit sympathy from readers. External conflict elicits admiration for the character. Now juice things up by adding a temptation or cost for each decision the character makes during the conflict. Think: “is there something a character would never do but that he/she must do to accomplish a goal?”
5. “Force the wizard to throw a punch”
That thing your character is absolutely worst at? Make that the thing she must do. Tex noted that when a masculine character is forced to perform a job with feminine associations, the conventional result is comedy, i.e., Kindergarten Cop. On the other hand, when a feminine character must perform an act conventionally considered masculine, the usual result is a drama, i.e., Aliens or Kill Bill. Tex of course, being Tex, urged us to subvert these conventions.
4. Add a different kind of conflict
Given the three major kinds of conflict characters can experience -- internal, interpersonal, and external – give them more than one. The effect of internal and interpersonal conflicts is to elicit sympathy from readers. External conflict elicits admiration for the character. Now juice things up by adding a temptation or cost for each decision the character makes during the conflict. Think: “is there something a character would never do but that he/she must do to accomplish a goal?”
5. “Force the wizard to throw a punch”
That thing your character is absolutely worst at? Make that the thing she must do. Tex noted that when a masculine character is forced to perform a job with feminine associations, the conventional result is comedy, i.e., Kindergarten Cop. On the other hand, when a feminine character must perform an act conventionally considered masculine, the usual result is a drama, i.e., Aliens or Kill Bill. Tex of course, being Tex, urged us to subvert these conventions.
***
Today it’s the
conclusion of the inimitable Tex Thompson’s Juice Box Hero: Squeezing
Plot from Character presentation. And since nothing beats hearing Texas in
person, I’ll only give the barest skeleton of the writerly techniques which
received their world before the recent meeting of the Writers Guild of
Texas. Want more? You’ll have to persuade your own writing group to
host Tex herself for the full meal deal!
Now – are you ready for the final five ideas? Ta-da!
6. Use the four
stages of competence
Uh, what? Right,
that’s how I felt. Like, you’re either competent or not, aren’t you? So Tex
expanded this concept for us. She also graphed it, which I’m sorry I can’t show
you. But as I said – consult Tex herself for the whole show.
Here are those four
stages of competence: unconscious incompetence (the we don’t know what we
don’t know stage); conscious incompetence (we’re at least aware of our own
inadequacy); conscious competence (we can do it, but we have to think about
it); and unconscious competence (the never forgetting how to ride a bike
stage).
Tex also mapped these
onto the three-act plot structure, remembering that Act 2 has two parts, with a
major change in the middle: Act 1 – the character is unaware that a problem
exists until, boing! his incompetence reaches his conscious level. Act 2
– the character starts to figure things out (moving from conscious incompetence
to conscious competence), with numerous falls off the bike. Act 3 – ride the
heck out of that bike!
7. “Jump before
you’re pushed”
Which in Tex-speak
means, “that awful thing that happens to your character is something she
brought on herself.” (Review the three forms of conflict and “choose whichever
one most advances the story.”)
8. Include a well-intentioned
catastrophe
Think “Gift of the Magi,” Tex urged us, in which each character,
with the best of intentions, fails to realize what the other is doing. (Note:
Catastrophes that can be averted by five minutes of honest communication don’t
count. Our job is to prevent those characters from having those
communications!)
9. Use “so” to
turn emotion into action
Haven’t we all been at
some point letting our characters wallow in their emotions? Tex’s solution aims
to keep those emotions from descending into navel-gazing, while providing
“kindling to make your plot catch file.” Her example of the solution: “. . .
he’s upset. How upset? So upset he decides to (fill in the blank)”
And the final idea is
like unto it:
10. Use “so” to turn virtues into faults
“She’s generous. How generous? So generous that she takes on too
much, gets overburdened and then . . .”
And then, as a special treat for us, her original audience, Tex
shared a bonus idea, but I’ll let you in on it as well: Let the worst thing
happen.
We’ve probably all heard this one, but how often do we act on it
in our writing? Maybe because we thought that worst thing was unbelievable?
“We have to rethink about what happens not only to the story but
to the character,” Tex said. “That forces the character to rewrite his own
identity.”
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