Story Deconstruction Basics I: Which Characters And Scenes Actually Matter?

Good whatever-time-of-day-it-is,

This post is aimed at folks just finishing up with their first draft and looking at a rewrite.  Of course, you could jump the gun and use this before you’ve finished your book, or do it three drafts in.  All of the ideas are just as helpful no matter where you use them.

The primary goal here is to help you, as a writer, better define (and maybe discover) the hidden thematic elements that make up your story, the drivers that keep it moving (overall, in different parts, through character, plot, etc.) as well as the bones of the story itself, and use that knowledge to help you make your work better.

In fact, this very method has made it extremely easy for me to shave unnecessary characters and scenes (or chapters.  Whatever you want to call them or however you define and space them).  And, sadly, you’ll probably have to do that.  Somewhere, in my experience, there’s a drag on the pacing of your plot (If you just “full out” wrote your first draft and didn’t waste a year editing while you cranked it out inch by inch).  Maybe there’s none in yours.  It’s possible.  You’ll find out soon enough.  One way or another.

The very first thing I do is: Define My Characters and Themes

I don’t define my scenes first, as the title of this post seems to suggest, but it all weaves together.  Trust me.  For a little while, anyway.

This isn’t going to deal much with what you’ve done before (Because I’m assuming you’ve written your Character CVs before you even started writing your book, and you know your characters like the back of your hand).  You already know how they’d naturally react in any given situation, what they look like, what motivates them, drives them, etc.

This is the beginning of a template that I “made up” (I put that in quotes because I’m sure it’s a mixture of a  bunch of different things I learnt here and there.  I didn’t know how to speak until my parents taught me.  Nothing is totally original.  Except, perhaps, the individual’s expression of unoriginal things)

Part 1 is just a simple heading consisting of your characters and their hierarchy.  Much like this (I like to use different colours for each type of character, for reasons that will become obvious in posts following, but I got sick of the html codes not working on this post very quickly):

PRIMARY CHARACTER (PROTAGONIST): Bob Roberts

SECONDARY CHARACTER (ANTAGONIST): Susie Johnson

TERTIARY CHARACTER (POSITIVE SUPPORT): Some Other Girl

QUATERNARY CHARACTER (POSITIVE/NEGATIVE SUPPORT): Some Other Guy

QUINARY CHARACTER (NEGATIVE SUPPORT): A Bad Bad Man

SENARY CHARACTER(S) (NEGATIVE/POSITIVE SUPPORT):

Another Guy

Another Girl

Bob’s Boss

Doctor(s) / Nurse(s) / EMT(s)

Police / Detective(s) / Lawyer(s)

The character names will be different for whatever you’re doing, and you may have more characters (or less), of different kinds, in different levels of the hierarchy, but this is just for example.

The next section of the template is where you begin to list out the thematic elements of your story (This will be built upon much more in following posts, because, as you discover your story – and its actual depths – you’ll realise that there are many other thematic threads running through it.  The more the better.  In my opinion.)

We’ll say, for argument’s sake, that you only have one thematic element that you’re aware of (Because your story has a theme, right?  Please say yes).

The format I use below is the way I like to do things.  Once you understand it, you can change it however you want.  You can change it even if you don’t understand it.  Maybe it’ll give you an even better idea than anyI can.

Whatever works best for you is always the best thing to do for yourself (Based on end results, of course.  If your editor tells you a scene has to go and you feel it shouldn’t and that’s the one thing all your reader’s complain about, you need to revise your list of “Best Things To Do For Myself”)

(#)THEMATIC ELEMENTS
#00 = MAIN THEME: (Ex: Life Is Awesome)

I prefer to list things out like this so that I can do a search for them when I’ve deconstructed a whole work (600+ pages maybe).  It makes it a lot easier to see if that thematic element drops off or becomes unnecessary.

It can also help (especially when you have a lot of thematic elements) to more clearly define scenes that you need to cut.  If no thematic elements exist in a scene, it’s most probably not pushing the story forward.  There are exceptions, but not very many.

I’ll go through the next step (Outlining Your Already Written Story) in my next post.  It’ll be short and sweet, too (This is short for me.  I don’t know if it’s too long.  And I don’t care.  It’s what works best for me ;)

For this step, just do the first two things (List Out Your Characters - and their hierarchy - and Define Your Thematic Elements) and breeze through your novel or script or short story.

In some instances you may be able to see, just by listing out the characters and thematic elements you’re aware of, that certain scenes (even certain characters) can go.  If they contribute nothing, they won’t be missed and your story will be better.  If they had really cool dialogue (or something else you loved) you can use that somewhere else in your story, give it to another character, or even save it for another tale.

Until next time, best wishes to you with your writing!

Peace,

Mike