THE BIG QUESTIONS?

Post (c) Doris McCraw
writing as Angela Raines

As I continue on the journey of growing as a writer that began this summer, I am ending this series with 'The Big Questions'. 

What you may ask are the big questions? No, they are not, is this any good, can I get this published or will people like this? No, these are the big questions you can or may want to ask as you are writing.

I give credit to James E. Ryan, Dean of Harvard's Graduate School of Education, for these questions. He proposed that they are life's essential questions. I've appropriated them for use as I write scenes, chapters and ultimately the story. The questions are: Wait, what? I wonder (why, if)?, Couldn't we at least?, and What truly matters?. He has an addition question but it doesn't really apply for my purpose.

When I sit down to write another scene, I stop and ask "wait, what?" This allows me to focus in on what it is I'm trying to achieve by writing and including this piece in the story. If my hero wants to kiss the heroine, I will pause before I start and ask the questions. Wait, what: does he really want to kiss her, and what will be her response, or their response to each other?

Next I will ask, I wonder if things will go smoothly or I wonder why the two are in this situation. Will the kiss go smoothly, and why did things have to happen this way. Perhaps additional information is needed to inform what is happening.

Perhaps the scene could use an answer to the question, couldn't we at least let them be happy for a moment or maybe I need to create additional conflict from either the two of them or outside influences. Maybe he has had a bad experience and doesn't want to complicate their relationship. Maybe she is shy and although wants the kiss is afraid she will do it all wrong. 

Ultimately the final question is, what truly matters in the upcoming scene? Is it an end scene? Is it a catalyst scene? Do they come to some realization that makes the kiss the most important thing?

I don't always use every question, but do try. I have found it helps to focus me on what I'm trying to accomplish with the story. What is my overall purpose in telling this particular story? Why are these characters doing what they are doing? I do use 'wait, what' almost consistently when either writing a scene, re-writing/editing or when I'm pondering another project. Asking the question allows me to pause and understand my purpose for putting the proverbial pen to paper.

I've used the romance genre here, but these questions work for any type of writing. When you set down to write the non-fiction piece, or the mystery, stop and ask these questions. Wait, what is my purpose. I wonder if I should tell the story this way or another way. Couldn't I try it, see if it works. And of course, what truly matters about this work.

Hopefully, some of the ideas I've shared in this post and the other two, And Action, Badge of Pain, will help you as you travel the road of author who tells stories that matter to you and your readers.

If anyone wishes, to read Mr. Ryan's book, it is called "Wait, What?, and Life's Other Essential Questions" published by Harper One.


Doris Gardner-McCraw -Author, Speaker, Historian,
specializing in Colorado and Women's History

Angela Raines - author: Where Love & History Meet

For a list of Angela Raines Books: Here 

Photo and Poem: Click Here 

Angela Raines FaceBook: Click Here

WHAT MAKES A GREAT PLOT? OR ....... WHAT MAKES A PLOT???? By Gail L. Jenner

 
Is there an EXACT number of PLOT "TEMPLATES"? DO PLOTS EVEN HAVE TO FOLLOW A TEMPLATE OR PATTERN???   Yes??  No?? Maybe??

If not, how do writers "arrive" at a plot?

As a writing teacher I have had many students ask about PLOT and how to develop it. They wanted to create a plot and then plug in whatever characters might move through the episodes of their stories.

In the beginning, I didn’t know how to turn that notion around, although I sensed that starting with PLOT was not the answer.  As I analyzed the stories that touched me most profoundly -- the novels and stories that were keepers, I discovered that plot was not the primary tool used.......Unfortunately, I now believe some writers think that if they can just get hold of the right kind of plot – or set up a series of actions/events that will make their story exciting -- that the work involved in developing a good story might also come easily.

I sincerely believe this is a mistake.  I also believe that even if there was such a thing as the most PERFECT plot -- it would NOT make the act of writing any easier at all!

In the quest to understand plot, I have picked up a number of books over the years. In 20 Master Plots (And How to Build Them), Ronald Tobias asks that very question: “How may plots are there?” He then lists a number of possible answers, including: Thousands or maybe millions? Sixty-nine? Thirty-six? OR Two, period?

I had to laugh the first time I read that….I knew that Aristotle had ascribed to the two basic plot theory, but the other responses were new to me. I learned that Rudyard Kipling ascribed to the idea of sixty-nine plots (WHY 69??), and Carlo Gozzi (who?) felt there were thirty six (Okay….).

Honestly, I don’t know if there IS an absolute answer to the question of plots, but I do recognize that in life, there are universal questions that seem to come up every day, no matter where we live or who we are. These are the deep, deep questions that each of us has to answer for ourselves about our life. I now see those deeper questions as being the force or energy behind any great story.

Plot, then, seems to grow out of those questions, and those are the same questions that our characters must confront and resolve. So for me, the POWER in story comes out of character (NOT plot); that is, Plot IS Character.  OR – another way to say it is that “character + conflict = plot”.

So does that mean there are two or thirty-six or sixty-nine or thousands of plots out there? I’m still not sure. There is an unlimited number of possible complications and conflicts, but how many ways can a character resolve his/her conflict? Interesting question, right?

There is, of course, tragedy. There is also comedy and adventure, etc., but those are actually genres – which do, in fact, carry certain plot elements that become part of a reader’s expectation. They are the patterns that most writers instinctively or deliberately follow.  

Writers recognize that readers expect a number of predictable elements to be present when they pick up their preferred genre. Break those unwritten “rules” and you may have some very frustrated readers. For instance, in a romance, a reader generally expects a “happy ever after” ending; if not entirely “happy,” the ending must at least be satisfying – or else that story/novel may end up thrown against the wall.

Of course, readers of “literary” fiction are often looking for those less predictable elements – even the less than satisfactory ending. I always found it amusing when my students would tell me that literary fiction was just boring fiction and that’s what made it literary! 

What matters most to a writer should be that he/she understand the elements of a particular genre (if a commercial genre is the goal), and along with that the patterns that lend themselves to the selected genre. However, that does not mean a writer can lean on those prescribed elements and forsake deep character and the questions that arise from a character’s internal struggle. No matter how simple a plotline a writer may employ, it is character that makes a story unforgettable.

So how do we arrive at those deep character questions?

We all face similar issues in life and great stories reflect those issues, eg: What complex choices can we then set up as obstacles that our hero or heroine must face and overcome? What dilemmas can we forge, which force our readers to recognize that there are no easy solutions in life, that sometimes doing the right thing actually means doing the “wrong” thing? Or what sacrifices will our protagonists have to make in order to get or have or achieve their goals? What losses are required in order to “win?”

This kind of thinking, this kind of character development is, in my opinion, what takes an average story into the better and best category of story. So, the challenge should be to take our characters on a journey that causes our readers to cheer or cry or scream!

As in the words of Willa Cather, “There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before.”

These are the kinds of dilemmas I played with when creating the characters that people my newly re-released WILLA Award-winning novel, ACROSS THE SWEET GRASS HILLS from Prairie Rose Publications. It’s more than just a romance. It’s the story of a man, a woman, and a people – all pitted against the terrifying and historical drama of the little-known Baker’s Massacre of the Blackfeet in 1870. Questions of loyalty, sacrifice, love, and forgiveness are the questions each of the characters must answer for themselves.

In appreciation and gratitude, I’d like to offer TWO free downloads of ACROSS THE SWEET GRASS HILLS! Leave a comment and I’ll enter your name into a drawing. 

TWO winners will be selected on WEDNESDAY of this week!

FINDING THE STORY IN HISTORY.... by Gail L. Jenner

As a former history and English teacher, one of my principal motivations for teaching was to help students to find the story in history.

Too many times students find history boring. BORING? How could the lives, obstacles, and challenges people through history and time have faced and overcome be boring? History is so much more than dates and places and names...

As writers who love history, we know that studying and writing about past lives is exciting and relevant. Perhaps that is why historical fiction is more important than most of us even realize. For those who have found the past nothing more than boring facts, writers have an obligation to provide a door into the past through story.

But what IS story? According to one definition, story is "a narrative, either true or fictitious, in prose or verse, designed to interest, amuse, or instruct the hearer or reader; a tale." But I think the definition of story goes deeper than that....

Interestingly enough, story is part of what makes our human experience unique; to some degree it's part of what makes us human. After all, in spite of all the "language" that animals can engage in, creating or relating story is not one of their communication skills.

Story is entirely human in its origin and in its impact.

Think of it: even the parables in the Bible were constructed in story form; oral history, which is traditionally without error, has been the mode of transferring knowledge and culture in societies for thousands of years. Is it any wonder we gravitate to story as not only a form of entertainment, but also as a source of solving the dilemmas of our human experience?

Through story we can look critically at the vagaries of life through another person's point of view. Through story, we can riffle through the choices we each face in life -- perhaps trying on one or another as a way of vicariously finding solutions to our own questions.

Because character development is an integral part of any good story, as writers we need to examine our characters closely -- allowing their humaneness and foibles to help bring them to life. So as we construct their personalities, we can look to the people who color our own world -- here and now. After all, human conflict has not changed since the dawn of human settlement. Letting those characters speak their own stories, we can discover their fears, hopes, dreams, and conflicts. Their stories become "everyman (or woman)" stories that will resonate with readers.

In looking for characters for my first novel, ACROSS THE SWEET GRASS HILLS, I looked to the history behind the notorious Baker's Massacre as the focus of my tale. I wanted to pit characters who would have to dig deep into themselves to survive such a horrendous event. I also wanted those characters to likewise deal with their own personal stories. The confluence of Red Eagle and Liza Ralston's personal stories had to bisect the larger regional story of a people, the Blackfeet. It was an exciting process as well as a challenge to keep those two story formats integrated.

I'm pleased to report that ACROSS THE SWEET GRASS HILLS Won a WILLA Literary Award, from Women Writing the West for Best Softcover Fiction...

In writing BLACK BART: THE POET BANDIT, I wrote the story of a real man's life -- as I imagined it, of course -- and that was a new challenge. What I sought to do was find through the facts of the historical narratives the essence of his personal story and bring it to light.

I'm happy to report that the first version of this novel placed in the Jack London Novel Contest -- and it is the first and only fictionalized biography of Charles Bowles, aka "Black Bart."  He was California's most successful stage bandit, but he was also a poet (of sorts!).....he was, indeed, an enigma...

It is interesting to me that although I have written far more nonfiction than fiction I find fiction to be as much a truth-telling genre as nonfiction! To make fiction reflect life and reality, it must reflect the human condition, the human conflicts we all face -- in short, our human story.

For more about my writing, check out my website: www.gailjenner.com
or http://prairierosepublications.yolasite.com/gail-l-jenner.php