A Short, Questionnaire-free Case Study: The Awaiting Epiphany When Craft Suddenly Clarifies…

… a moment that sometimes waits until after a synopsis comes together – or even the writing of an entire manuscript – to announce itself to you.

Which can feel like awakening to the realization that, while you set out to drive to Florida, you’re instead in a boat heading for Havana, and the guys waiting at the dock have machine guns pointing at you.

This is about what you think you know about your story… versus what you must know about your story.

Or, as I like to call it… the criteria of craft.

Let’s call today’s writer Dave.

Dave is one of my earliest coaching clients, and from Day One he’s impressed me as a publication-ready talent. We worked on his first novel through a couple of rounds of coaching, and he ended up landing an agent. Who, unfortunately, hasn’t found a home for the novel yet… but it will happen, in my opinion.

(Sidenote: The Help – you may have heard of it – was rejected 60 times. Click HERE to read an article by the author herself… this is what happens. Rejection, in some cases, has almost no relationship to the viable quality of the story or the talents of the author.)

And so, like any real writer, Dave moved on to his next novel.

As context, Dave isn’t just a stellar wielder of clever narrative prose, he crafts edgy, flawed-hero-driven thrillers — right up my alley — that will make the more nervous among you flee to the nearest Sound of Music DVD.

And so, when he came back for some evaluation and coaching on his latest story, he opted in to my Full Story Plan (then $150) service, which as you know by now involves a nastily unforgiving little Questionnaire that doesn’t allow you to hide behind a Big Idea.

It’s like an MRI for your story. Or a relentless District Attorney with a truckload of evidence… you have to prove yourself under cross-examination.  The jury, by the way, isn’t just me — it’s agents, editors and anyone who will read the story, in whatever form.

Besides, that DA (or the MRI machine, for that matter) won’t suggest what you do about it.  I will.

And here’s where Dave fell into the trap.

That nasty little abyss that swallows stories whole and may or may not – the latter coming if you simply quit – result in a two to three year cycle of rewriting and thoughts of taking up finger-painting instead.

He sent me a synopsis of his story.  Just that.  Didn’t want to mess around with that pesky Questionnaire. As if, perhaps, it was a first step that no longer mattered since the synopsis was, as it should be, created in context to a vision for the whole, larger story.

He’s not the first to do this. To make that risky assumption.

And not the first to discover that the Questionnaire itself is a literary version of a visit with Peter at the Pearly Gates of Story Heaven. Because, even without a synopsis or a whole story, even before either have written, that Questionnaire will expose and explore the story’s worthiness.

Let us hope that doesn’t end up being worthlessness. But it happens.

Back to Dave.

I told him that, to get the full value and benefit of this process, he needed to dive into that Questionnaire. I assured him that he would discover his story there, at least in terms if it was ready… or not. I suggested that I would wait for his answers before giving him my feedback.

Why? Because it is those answers that I am evaluating. Despite, or at least over and above, what the synopsis says.

Meanwhile, as I was waiting on Dave’s response, I heard from another client, offering me “feedback” on the same Questionnaire. She said she’d never encountered the terms used to frame the questions (concept, premise, dramatic question, theme, etc.) despite – grab something solid for this next part – having studied creative writing at the college level and taken a boatload of online workshops (including those from Writers Digest, which include my own handful of webinars).

It was Greek to her. And, at first blush, it therefore appeared that I wasn’t speaking the true language of  fiction.

We had a nice back and forth on that issue. Outcome of that in a moment.

I basically told her that, to whatever extent this was true (about college-level courses not talking about the right things — I have many MFA clients who assure me they don’t), this is why so many creative writing majors never publish a word.

But again… back to Dave.

Here’s what he wrote me, word for word, after his first pass at the Questionnaire, and in response to my inquiry, because several days had passed in silence:

I had some feedback from a trusted reader that nagged at me. Then one question of yours gave me the answer and drove the outline into an overhaul.

I swear I will never again start writing anything until I have my beat outline locked down. Reworking a 3 to 5 thousand page outline is nothing compared to reworking a 85,000 word novel.

Larry, thanks again for saving my writing-ass. I dread to think of the hundreds, if not thousands of hours I could have wasted. Thankfully I was spared that misery. All because I checked in with you first.

In other words, an Epiphany.

Not just at the story level, but on a storytelling craft level. Something he cannot un-see or un-know… he is a different writer because of this new understanding of the criteria of craft.

And that other writer, the one who thought I was inventing a new vocabulary for storytelling craft? That, just perhaps, I was dealing in snake oil (as one Story Physics reviewer put it; maybe they went to the same school, who knows)?

Here’s her response:

I get it! I’m reading Story Physics right now. I just started section 3. All of a sudden, I remembered back to when I used to read every Dean Koontz book that came out until they got boring because I knew how it would go: Bad thing happens. Meet the hero. Bad thing happens that sets the hero on his mission. The A, B, C, happens with some fluff in between before there’s a final confrontation with the Big Bad, then a wrap up. I wondered how he managed to crank out so many books so fast and even tried to sit down and figure out his formula but I didn’t have the knowledge or the tools at the time. I didn’t make the connection. Geez, I was such a doofus.

But now, I get it. I see it. I understand what I was fumbling at all those years ago. Epiphany moment!

Just had to share!

There’s that word again: Epiphany.

Call it what you will. It certainly feels like a curtain parting when it hits you. And sometimes, despite reading the books and going to workshops listening to webinars, you need to apply what you’re learning to your own story.

Because I promise you, it’s much harder and more complex than it looks or seems.

*****

Several case studies from this evaluation process are here on Storyfix, especially recently. If you’d like a peek at the Questionnaire – for both the shorter Kick-Start level (concept, premise and First Plot Point), and the Full Story Plan level – check them out.

Partly because of suggestions (well-intended pressure, actually) from a few of my peers, not to mention several clients, and because I’m spending more and more hours on each individual project submitted, I’m changing my fee structure for both levels of evaluation.

Trying for a more equitable win-win value proposition.  And yes, I will continue to attempt to over-deliver.

In return I’m expanding the links included on the Questionnaire – in case some of the terminology and the principles need a tune up – as well as the scope and volume of my input.

The Kick-Start Concept/Premise Evaluation is now $95 (for a 48-hour rush, $145).

The Full Story Plan Evaluation is now $195 (for a 48-hour rush, $245).

These new fees are effectively immediately.

If you’ve already submitted a project for review, and are opting in for a second round on the same story (which many do), the former pricing structure still applies to that revised submission (through the remainder of 2014).

It’s still, I humbly submit, the best value in the story coaching business.

What is your story, and your time, worth to you?

Craft is priceless. Getting there more effectively and efficiently… that’s just (still) ridiculously affordable.

A Short, Questionnaire-free Case Study: The Awaiting Epiphany When Craft Suddenly Clarifies… is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

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