Lee Strauss's Blog, page 14

Author Tip Tuesday – Tip #5 Plot Point 1

We determined in the last tip that the inciting incident is the answer to “It all started when…” In other words, if this event never happened, the story couldn’t have unfolded. This happens early on in the first Act. In future tips I’ll cover what kinds of things happen in each Act, but for now, I’ll go over what defines each major point.

The First Plot point (sometimes called a plot pinch or break into Act…) is a key event that happens at the end of Act 1 and propels us into Act 2.

M.d Tabish Faraz describes it this way:

“Plot point 1 or the first turning point in a screenplay is the event that takes place either by the will of the protagonist himself or without his will and forces his circumstances to a whole new direction. The plot point 1 is the result of the inciting incident.” (italics mine)

Though Mr. Faraz is referring to screenplays, this structure is applicable to novels as well.

When you are plotting out your novel, you are looking for an event or situation that forces your main character into a new, unforeseen direction.

In PERCEPTION, plot point one happens when Zoe disguises herself to spy on Noah Brody and is caught. This places her in a situation where she’s forced to trust him even though she doesn’t. She’s uncertain if she’s safe with him, but her need to find her brother forces her to go against her instinct.

In HUNGER GAMES plot point one happens when Katniss and Peeta are alone for the first time on the train to the Capitol–they know that in order for one of the to win, the other one has to die.

In HARRY POTTER, the first plot point occurs when Harry and Ron rescue Hermione from the troll. This event forges their three-way friendship.

In SUN & MOON, the first plot point happens when Katja meets Micah’s American mother and she announces to her son, “This girl isn’t right for you.” Katja is torn – she want’s the rude woman to be wrong, but deep down she believes her.

In GINGERBREAD MAN, the first plot point, the event that pushes us into Act 2, is when Teagan Lake is murdered in one world, but still alive in another.

This is how it looks in the scene:

Marlow:

>>>My fingers quivered along with my goose bump-covered body and I slumped as I read the newsfeed.

Third rape and second murder victim identified as Detroit University freshman, Teagan Lake. Her body was found in the park at the north end of the campus. Police are investigating and talking to persons of interest.

A picture of Teagan was posted alongside the story. It wasn’t the same one she used on her chat profile. Her hair was longer, and the blue streak was missing.

My mind went crazy. Despite the newsflash in front of me, I couldn’t accept it as truth. My fingers seemed to work autonomously from the logical part of my brain.

@averagegeek99 to @art4ever: Are you there? Please. I don’t know why you’re mad at me. I just need to know you’re okay.

I pinched my eyes together. I was insane. Of course she wouldn’t respond. Dead people didn’t hang out in chat rooms.

Then I heard the ping.

@art4ever: Yes. I’m here and okay.

I knocked off my glasses in surprise. My heart took off like pebbles scattered across the pond. It couldn’t be her. Could it? I scrambled to fit my glasses back on my face and began to type.<<<

Review your favorite movies and books and see if you can determine the Plot Point 1 scene.

I’ll cover Midpoint Reversal in the next tip.

Free or .99 book Friday – Black in White by JC Andrijeski!

.99 on Amazon!

“My name is Black. Quentin Black…”

Gifted with an uncanny sense about people, psychologist Miri Fox works as an off and on profiler for the police. So when they think they’ve finally nailed the “Wedding Killer,” she agrees to check him out, using her gift to discover the truth.

But the suspect, Quentin Black, isn’t anything like Miri expects. He claims to be hunting the killer too and the longer Miri talks to him, the more determined she becomes to uncover his secrets.

When he confronts her about the nature of her peculiar “insight,” Miri gets pulled into Black’s bizarre world and embroiled in a game of cat and mouse with a deadly killer–who still might be Black himself. Worse, she finds herself irresistibly drawn to Black, a complication she doesn’t need with a best friend who’s a homicide cop and a boyfriend in intelligence.

Can Miriam see a way out or is her future covered in Black?

A paranormal mystery romance, introducing brilliant, dangerous, and otherworldly psychic detective, Quentin Black.

Praise for JC Andrijeski’s Writing

“Andrijeski delivers a whopper of an action flick…” ~ New Myths

“The sexual tension is scorching…” ~ The Muses Circle

“Amazing characters in an out-of-this-world scenario…” ~ The Indie Bookshelf

“The most impressive display of world-building I have seen in a while.” ~ I (Heart) Reading

.99 on Amazon!

What would happen if Adolf Hitler woke up in modern-day Berlin?

“What would happen if Adolf Hitler woke up in modern-day Berlin? In a bestselling satirical novel, he’d end up a TV comedy star . . . [Look Who’s Back] has unsurprisingly sparked debate in a country that has grappled for decades with Hitler’s unconscionable legacy.” -Time

My husband and I watched the movie on Netflix last week. It’s not often that I read or watch something that stays with me for a long time – but this film did. Maybe because I’ve written a book set in WW2 about children coming of age in Hitler Youth, or maybe because I live in Germany part-time and have often visited Berlin.

Maybe it’s because of the striking similarities to the way some contenders in certain upcoming elections are presenting themselves.

Maybe it’s because we’ve grown up pointing fingers: we’d never fall for Hitler’s charm and rhetoric!

And yet, with the current refugee crisis… here we are.

When I watched Look Who’s Back (Er ist Weider Da – it’s a foreign film and must be watched with subtitles) I didn’t realize it was based on a book – now on my TBR list.

On Amazon

Timur Vermes’ record-breaking bestseller, Look Who’s Back, is a satirical novel that imagines what would happen if Hilter reawakened in present-day Germany. The book was a massive success in Germany, selling more than 1.5 million copies. Janet Maslin of The New York Times called Look Who’s Back” desperately funny . . . an ingenious comedy of errors.”

In the novel, Adolf Hitler wakes up in 2011 from a 66-year sleep in his subterranean Berlin bunker to find the Germany he knew entirely changed: Internet-driven media spreads ideas in minutes and fumes celebrity obsession; immigration has produced multicultural neighborhoods bringing together people of varying race, ethnicity, and religion; and the most powerful person in government is a woman. Hitler is immediately recognized . . . as an impersonator of uncommon skill. The public assumes the fulminating leader of the Nazi party is a performer who is always in character, and soon his inevitable viral appeal begets YouTube stardom, begets television celebrity on a Turkish-born comedian’s show. His bigoted rants are mistaken for a theatrical satire-exposing prejudice and misrepresentation-and his media success emboldens Hitler to start his own political party, and set the country he finds a shambles back to rights.

With daring and dark humor, Look Who’s Back skewers the absurdity and depravity of the cult of personality in modern media culture.

Author Tip Tuesday – Tip #4 The Inciting Incident

We touched on the Inciting Incident briefly in Tip #2, The Bones It Hangs On. The Inciting Incident (sometimes called the Catalyst or the Inciting Event) is the trigger that starts the story. It’s not necessarily the first thing that happens in the book, but it should occur within the first 30-50 pages depending on the total length of the book. It’s the completion of the statement: It all started when….

In HUNGER GAMES, the inciting incident happens when Prim’s name is chosen to fight in the Hunger Games, and Katniss volunteers to take her place.

The inciting incident in the first HARRY POTTER book happens when Hagrid shows up to whisk Harry away to Hoggwarts. If this event didn’t happen, Harry would’ve unhappily grown up living with the Dursleys and the rest of the story wouldn’t have unfolded.

In PERCEPTION (young adult dystopian), the inciting incident happens when something doesn’t happen – Zoe Vanderveen throws a surprise party for her brother only he doesn’t show. This leads to her futile search for him and to her reluctant plea for help from the last person she thinks she can trust.

In SUN & MOON (inspirational romance), the inciting incident is when Katja’s wallet is stolen and she can’t make her rent.

In GINGERBREAD MAN (mystery thriller) the inciting incident happens in chapter six. Marlow warns Teagan to be careful, that a girl on campus has been raped, but when Teagan searches for news of the attack she can’t find anything. Though Marlow’s warning makes her wary of going on her coffee date with Jake, she goes anyway. Jake leaves her and shortly afterward someone announces a rape just happened on campus.

So, it all started when… a rape happened in Marlow’s world before it happened in Teagan’s world. Since no one realizes this is the case yet, it sets up a lot of tension and mistrust between Teagan and Marlow.

Here’s how it reads on the page.

>>>Before she could leave, a girl Teagan didn’t know blew into the café and screeched to a group of girls at a booth across the room. “You won’t believe this! Someone was just raped in the park behind the library!”

Teagan’s blood cooled, pooling at her knees and she slid into a nearby chair. She grabbed at her chest and swallowed dryly, trying to process what she’d heard. Someone was just raped. So, how did Marlow know? How could he possibly know about something before it happened?

Unless? Teagan could barely cope with the next thought. Unless he had planned to commit the crime himself? Blood rushed from her head and she felt faint at the thought.

Teagan ran home and locked the door to her dorm behind her. She would remove herself from the chat forums and never talk to Marlow again. Oh, God, how she wished now that she’d never given @averagegeek99 her name!<<<

Think about the book you’re reading now. Can you pinpoint the inciting incident? What is the situation where you could say, if this didn’t happen the story couldn’t have unfolded? What about your current WIP (work in process)? Do you know what your inciting incident is? Is it easy to identify? At least to you?

Free Book Friday – Death on the Range by Nikki Haverstock!

When a competitive archer is murdered at the training facility where Di has just started working, she’s thrust into the middle of an unofficial investigation before she can even settle into her new life.

With her roommate Mary and a Great Dane named Moo, she begins to unravel the mystery around the death of the victim, but can they solve the case before they find themselves in the killer’s sights?

A wholesome cozy murder for every sleuth in the family

This is the first book in a brand-new series set at the fictional Westmound Center for Competitive Shooting Sports in rural Wyoming.

“Funny, charming, and occasionally deadly.” ~ NYT bestselling author Zoe York

Target Practice Mystery #1

“A humorous first-in-series cozy mystery featuring a darling dog, a sassy heroine, and an amusing cast of characters.” — USA Today bestselling author Zara Keane

FREE ON AMAZON

Author Tips Tuesday – Crafting Your Best Story – Tip #3 Those Beautiful, Horrible Beginnings

Where I do I start, I ask you, where do I start???

If you’re like me, you’ve jumped around from starting position to starting position, pulling your hair out as you go. If you’re not like me, well, lucky you.

Beginnings are so difficult for me, I almost feel like apologizing that I’m trying to instruct on how to write them at all. The most I can hope for is that you will learn from my mistakes.

But you have to start somewhere. So pick a spot and start. It’s only by trying it on for size that you’ll be able to tell if it fits. And I can tell you this: you’re probably going to re-write your beginning many times, so don’t get too hung up on it at first. Just write it and move on.

But, for the purpose of the following instruction, let’s assume that you are at revision stage and want to nail that beginning sequence.

Let’s start with the first sentence.

What does a great first sentence look like? Let’s look at the examples from Finding the great idea.

GIRL ON THE TRAIN by Pauline Hawkins: There is a pile of clothing on the tracks.

MARTIAN by Andy Weir: I’m pretty much f*cked.

ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE  by Anthony Doerr: At dusk they poured from the sky.

ME BEFORE YOU by Jojo Moyes: When he emerges from the bathroom she is awake, propped up against the pillows and flicking through travel brochures that are beside his bed.

GINGERBREAD MAN by Lee Strauss: Clay from her sculpting class remained stubbornly under her nails.

Let’s look at these famous opening lines.

“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”

George Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-Four

“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.”

L. P. Hartley: The Go-Between

“I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking.”

Christopher Isherwood: Goodbye To Berlin

“A green hunting cap squeezed the top of a fleshy balloon of a head.”

John Kennedy Toole: A Confederacy of Dunces

“We started dying before the snow, and like the snow, we continued to fall.”

Louise Erdrich: Tracks

“Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board.”

Zora Neale Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God

And possibly the all time best first sentence ever—

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”

Jane Austin: Pride and Prejudice

What do you think of those first sentences? Take a look at your own first sentence. If that was all you had to go on, not the strength of the next sentence or paragraph, just the sentence itself, how would it strike you? Is it a strong sentence? Does it make you want to find out what comes next?

And let me share one more. This is from my son, many years ago when he was six:

“In the beginning it was very exciting and in the end it was even worse.”

(Pretty much wraps up the writing life, doesn’t it? :D)

Why is this important? Because opening lines hook us into reading the second line. And hopefully more. I know when I’m browsing for a book, this is what I do—I read the first sentence. And then the first paragraph. I may read the whole first page, but not always.

How many pages do you give a book before you put it down?

Don’t worry too much about your opening line or even your first page when you start a brand new story. Very rarely will you get it right the first time, or even the fifth. Your first page is something you will focus on when it’s time to do revisions. For now just write, “I’m writing a story about …and it’s not going to be very good at the beginning and that’s okay….” And keep going.

Next week we’ll look at the Inciting Incident.

Free or .99 Book Friday – Jump Cut by Libby Fischer Hellmann

**this post accidentally went out last Friday, but this is the week of the .99 sale. Sorry for any confusion or in convenience**

 

 

Chicago video producer Ellie Foreman has been absent from thriller author Libby Fischer Hellmann’s repertoire for almost a decade. Now, in Jump Cut, she’s back…and is soon entangled in a web of espionage, murder, and suspicion that threatens to destroy what she holds most dear.

Hired to produce a candy-floss profile of Chicago-based aviation giant Delcroft, Ellie is dismayed when company VP Charlotte Hollander trashes the production and cancels the project. Ellie believes Hollander was spooked by shots of a specific man in the video footage. But when Ellie arranges to meet the man to find out why, he is killed by a subway train before they can talk. In the confusion, she finds a seemingly abandoned pack of cigarettes with a flash drive inside that belonged to the now-dead man.

Ellie gets the drive’s contents decrypted, but before long discovers she’s under surveillance. Suspecting Delcroft and the ambitious Hollander are behind it, she’s unconvinced when Hollander tells her the dead man was a Chinese spy. Ellie and her boyfriend, Luke, try to find answers, but they don’t realize how far they have ventured into the dangerous echelons of hidden power– where more lives are on the line―including their own.

Only .99!

AMAZON

Author Tips Tuesday – Crafting Your Best Story – Tip #2 The Bones it Hangs On

In the last tip we talked about developing the Great Idea to the point where we have a file full of notes and an idea of the beginning, middle and end.

What’s the next step?

Building your structure.

Understanding structure early on in your writing process will really help you when it comes to getting other things right, like pacing and building tension.

Most of you will have heard of the three-act structure commonly used for play and movie writing. One thing I did after writing my first published novel was to re-write it as a screenplay. I highly recommend this as a writing practice tool. Script writing deals primarily with action and dialogue and making the most with the least. You only have 120 pages to tell the whole story and the margins are very narrow.

(Excuse my chicken scratch!)

At this point I look through my notes and pinpoint what my plot points are and where on the three act structure they should “hang.” If I’m missing something vital, I see this right away before I get too heavily into it. Especially critical is the midpoint, or what Janice Hardy coins the midpoint reversal. This is where something unexpected happens. It’s a twist that keeps the reader steadily hooked. Identifying your midpoint reversal early on will do wonders for preventing the chronic “saggy mid section”.

I’ll use GINGERBREAD MAN to illustrate.

Act 1- Set Up: The story opens with the victim (Teagan) an art student, scrubbing clay out from under her finger nails. She stays in when her roommate, Sage, our heroine, goes out with friends and ends up chatting to an anonymous person in the college forums online. We’re left wondering if this person is a good guy or bad. The book alternates between the two heroes, Sage and Marlow, Teagan and the villain.

Inciting Incident:  Marlow warns Teagan to be careful, that a girl on campus has been raped before it happens. (At least from Teagan’s perspective.)

Plot point I: Teagan Lake is murdered, but then she shows up for her chat meeting with Marlow.

Act 2 – Conflict: Marlow, who’s a physics genius figures out that the Teagan he’s been chatting with is from another realm. He’s determined to save her from the villain in her realm. Marlow and Sage meet for the first time and he tries to convince her that Teagan is in danger.

Midpoint reversal: Sage finally believes Marlow that he jumped realms and that Teagan is in trouble. The rest of Act 2 is about how Marlow and Sage work together to try to find Teagan.

Plot Point 2: I don’t want to give this away in case you have yet to read Gingerbread Man, but like plot point 1, something unexpected happens to thrust us into the third act. (For those who have read it, it has to with what happens after Marlow gets his eyes layered.)

Act 3 – Climax and Resolution: Act 3 has new and tougher problems for our leads. The stakes are raised over and over. Again, I don’t want to spoil the climax, but this is where everything falls apart and then comes back together for a satisfying ending. (For Gingerbread Man readers, this happens in shack and the villain is revealed.) There is a twist in the resolution – the story arc completes but it leaves you wanting to read the second book. Hopefully!

Here is another breakdown from the book The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins.

(For those who haven’t read The Girl on the Train, this breakdown involves spoilers.)

Act 1 – Set up: We learn about our protagonist (main character), Rachel, that she takes a train into London every day, that she’s divorced, an alcoholic, and that she has a good imagination, particularly when it comes to a certain set of houses along the tracks. She sees a loving couple out in the garden most days. She calls them “Jess and Jason.”

Inciting Incident: Rachel has suffered another drunken black out. She knows she went to her old neighbourhood (to harass her ex-husband who’d cheated on her and his new wife Anna) and saw something bad. She just can’t remember the details.

Plot Point 1: Megan’s point of view: Megan and Scott are the couple Rachel’s been watching. We find out she’s been cheating on her husband but we don’t know with whom.

Act 2 – Conflict: “Jess” who is in reality Megan, goes missing.

Midpoint Reversal: Megan’s body is found.

Plot Point 2: Anna’s point of view: she discovers her husband Tom (Rachel’s ex) was cheating on her with Megan (the dead woman) and she begins to suspect him.

Act 3 – Climax and Resolution: Rachel remembers what she saw. It was her ex-husband Tom she saw with Megan the night she went missing. There’s the final confrontation between Rachel and Tom.

I’ll delve deeper into the meaning of each of these points in future tips.

One thing to keep in mind is you’re not tied to these early decisions. You may change the inciting incident or where it happens, you might decide on a new midpoint reversal and move your original one to the pinch before Act 3. This is just a way to get you started. It’s a tentative roadmap to the words “The End.”

A great exercise you can do is to go through your favorite stories and see if you can identify these seven points. If you want to learn more about developing structure, I highly recommend Save the Cat by Blake Snyder and his famous beat sheet. We’ll look at that more closely in another chapter.

Can you easily “hang” the plot points of your WIP (work in progress)?

Now that we’ve built the bones, the bones need some meat! We’ll tackle that next.

Do you buy iBooks?

It’s a long weekend in Canada and unfortunately for all the campers, just a bunch of rain – at least here on the west coast. I’m not camping, so though a little cold, I’m dry. And no snow to speak of, unlike what some other Canadian cities are reporting!

As a full-time writer, every day’s the same for me. I don’t even know it’s a long weekend until someone mentions it.  

Free Book Friday – Open Minds by Susan Kaye Quinn!

Susan and have been in the indie-published trenches for a long time, and I can reassure you that Open Minds is a great book. It’s free TODAY ONLY, so make sure to pick up your copy!

When everyone reads minds, a secret is a dangerous thing to keep. Sixteen-year-old Kira Moore is a zero, someone who can’t read thoughts or be read by others. Zeros are outcasts who can’t be trusted, leaving her no chance with Raf, a regular mindreader and the best friend she secretly loves. When she accidentally controls Raf’s mind and nearly kills him, Kira tries to hide her frightening new ability from her family and an increasingly suspicious Raf. But lies tangle around her, and she’s dragged deep into a hidden underworld of mindjackers, where having to mind control everyone she loves is just the beginning of the deadly choices before her.

Open Minds is the first novel in the Mindjack Saga, a young adult science fiction series.

On Amazon!