WRITING ADVICE – Lisa Cron #3: Show Your Reader The BIG Picture!

In 2008, I discovered how little I knew about writing after hearing children’s writer, Lin Oliver speak at a convention hosted by the Minnesota Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. To learn more – and to satisfy my natural tendency to “teach stuff”, I started a series of essays taking the wisdom of published writers and then applying each “nugget of wisdom” to my own writing. During the six years that followed, I used the advice of a number of published writers (with their permission) and then applied the writing wisdom of Lin Oliver, Jack McDevitt, Nathan Bransford, Mike Duran, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, SL Veihl, Bruce Bethke, and Julie Czerneda to an analysis of my own writing. Together these people write in genres broad and deep, and have acted as agents, editors, publishers, columnists, and teachers. Today I add to that list, Lisa Cron who has worked as a literary agent, TV producer, and story consultant for Warner Brothers, the William Morris Agency, and others. She is a frequent speaker at writers’ conferences, and a story coach for writers, educators, and journalists. Again, I am using her article, “A Reader’s Manifesto: 15 Hardwired Expectations Every Reader Has for Every Story” (2/16/18 http://blog.creativelive.com/essential-storytelling-techniques/)
So we’ll continue with the third expectation a reader would have when they go to the STUPEFYING STORIES website, to read my most recent story there “Bogfather” (https://stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/2017/12/today-on-showcase.html) or dive into what I’m currently reading, ANOTHER MAN’S MOCCASINS, by Craig Johnson (https://www.amazon.com/Another-Mans-Moccasins-Longmire-Mystery/dp/0143115529):
3. “The reader expects a glimpse of the big picture…an idea where we’re going, why, and what’s at stake for the protagonist…[which] triggers the sense of urgency…allows us to make sense of what’s happening from beginning to end. John Irving [wrote]…: “Whenever possible, tell the entire story of the novel in the first sentence.”…What is the scope of my story? What journey will my reader take? Have I made it clear?...Be specific, be clear, don’t hold back…[giving them] a reason to care, a reason to be curious, and enough info to understand…the stakes...”
Craig Johnson has a bit of an advantage here. MOCCASINS is the fourth Longmire book, so we know a bit about the main character right from the start. One of the story lines in this book continues from the previous one as he works through physical therapy and the recovery of his daughter. Another storyline is new and initiated when his daughter says she’ll do “two more” if he tells her about one of the scars on his face. He agrees, and the second line of the story is introduced painlessly – Longmire’s tour of duty as (no surprise, actually!) a Marine CID investigator in Vietnam. (Well THAT explains a few things about him!)
But Johnson still has to deliver a powerful story, and the power of story, according to Cron, is that he introduce a hint at a broader story, what she calls the “big picture”. The character doesn’t exist in a vacuum, which is true of all real Humans. Every time I sit down to read a book or a story, I bring with me all of the baggage of my life – not just my political views or religious beliefs, but also how I feel about my kids, my job, and my life in general. Not ONLY how I feel on a particular day, but what parts of my life story are in the forefront of my mind or, as I prefer to think of it, “what’s on my heart”.
In MOCCASIN, he begins the story with this: “ ‘Two more.’ Cady looked at me but didn’t say anything. It had been like this for the last week.” Even if you hadn’t read the previous book, you know that from the get-go, there’s something happening and that this story is part of a larger tapestry. It’s a clear indication that the main character is alive and that there some sort of low level conflict.
My short story “Bogfather” begins: “Ozaawindib Erdrich stood with her arms crossed over her chest. Tommy Smoke scowled, then said, ‘Why is it here?’
‘Ozaawindib, who went by Win, snorted and said, ‘As well ask the wind why it blows.’”
‘Tommy looked at her and rolled his eyes. ‘That’s supposed to sound like Ojibwe chief wisdom?’”
“‘Nah, just a limnological observation, and as likely a good explanation as any.’”
It’s clear from the beginning that Win and Tommy have a long-term relationship in which they feel comfortable needling each other. There’s a bigger story here; bigger than the story we’re watching unfold.
While I really don’t want what I read for entertainment to mirror my real life – for example, I want the story to END, whether I’m reading JONATHAN STRANGE & MR. NORRELL by Susanna Clarke or O. Henry’s “Gift of the Magi” – I want to FEEL like it shouldn’t end, I want to FEEL like I lived the life in the story.
I think what Lisa Cron is trying to get me to do is to make each story feel like a slice of a character’s life. Even a novel, like Adrian Tchaikovsky’s CHILDREN OF TIME, despite the fact that it takes place over nearly two millennia and encompasses the virtual extinction of Humanity and the rise of another intelligent civilization, it is still only a slice of life. I never once see any of the main characters use a bathroom, I only see them rarely eat, and even though they have children, I never witness anything approaching intimacy. I do see how this fantastically broad sweep of time affects them all and I certainly feel their pain, their  victory, and their wonder.
Unlike other writers, however, she gives me specific clues about how to do that; which is exactly what I need at this point in my career as a writer.
Image: http://c8.alamy.com/comp/EEFHT4/snow-and-ice-sculpture-of-the-thinker-EEFHT4.jpg