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January 13 - January 14, 2025
Because readers who pay money for fiction want to be hooked by a story. They want to get lost in it and care about the characters. They want to experience the tale emotionally, ride it out to the very end. Which doesn't happen without structure.
Story without structure is like skin without skeleton. Oil without a crankcase and combustion engine. Abbott without Costello.
what is in the author's heart/mind is meaningless if it is not communicated by the words on the page.
Creating magic takes work, not just play. To connect with readers is a matter of both sides of your brain working in concert. Don’t use just half your brain. Leave that to the politicians.
"We must stay drunk on writing so reality does not destroy us."
"Feeling tells you what you want to say. Technique gives you tools with which to say it."
I emphasize that the overall plot of a novel is about how a character confronts death. Unless it's life and death, the stakes aren't high enough. Now, there are three kinds of death: physical, professional, psychological.
I teach an elevator pitch that is three sentences. The first describes the character, his vocation, and initial circumstances. The second is the Doorway of No Return (explained in Part II of this book). The third is the death stakes. So it looks like this:
LOCK stands for: Lead, Objective, Confrontation, and Knockout.
Your first task is to bond your readers with your Lead. Then you give the story the Objective, which is to fight with some form of death. The opposing force is what makes for Confrontation. Finally, there is a titanic battle at the end, inner and/or outer, mental and/or physical. And the result must be an absolute Knockout for the reader—which means they are supremely satisfied they bought your book!
Act I Disturbance Doorway of No Return #1 Act II Mirror Moment Doorway of No Return #2 Act III Final Battle
If you ever get bogged down in a scene, put a little marker there and skip ahead. Write the next thing that excites you. Go back and fill in the gaps later.
Each scene must have a scene objective. That is, from whatever POV you're in, there must be a moving force in the scene, trying to make something happen.
What person, place, thing or circumstance is keeping the POV character from gaining the objective?
Design your scenes so, for the most part, the Lead is in a worse position after the scene is over.
Act I (no greater than 20% of your novel) 1. Disturbance 2. Care Package 3. Argument against Transformation 4. Trouble Brewing 5. Doorway of No Return #1 Act II (that large middle portion where the main action takes place) 6. Kick in the Shins 7. The Mirror Moment 8. Pet the Dog 9. Doorway of No Return #2 Act III (the resolution) 10. Mounting Forces 11. Lights Out 12. Q Factor 13. Final Battle 14. Transformation
Trouble is the lifeblood of fiction.
The Care Package is a relationship the Lead has with someone else, in which he shows his concern, through word or deed, for that character's well being.
What is it that the character learns by the end of the story? What truth is it that she will live by from then on?
Your Lead is not just an action machine. She has beliefs, and those beliefs get challenged by the story events.
The “off scene” exercise is great at any point in your writing or planning. When you don’t know what to write next, spend some time brainstorming what the other major characters are up to, unseen.
The feeling must be that your Lead, once she is across the threshold, cannot go home again. The door slams shut. She has to
confront death (physical, professional or psychological) and overcome it, or she will die.
That’s why I call this the Doorway of No Return. There is no way back to the old, comfortable ways.
In a detective novel, the first Doorway is usually when the detective takes on a client,
The timing of the first Doorway should be before the 1/5 mark of your book.
Have you given us a character worth following? Have you created a disturbance in the opening pages? Do you know the death stakes of the story? Have you created a scene that will force the character into the confrontation of Act II? Is it strong enough? Can the Lead character resist going into the battle? Does it occur before the 1/5 mark of your total page count?
Soon after passing through the Doorway of No Return #1, the character must face an obstacle, the first real test in the death stakes of Act II.
So try this: come up with a long list of obstacles and opposition characters that can be thrown in the Lead’s way. Go crazy. When you’ve got fifteen or twenty of these, choose the best ones and list them in order from bad to worse to worst. The one that’s bad is the Kick in the Shins.
What I found was a moment where the main character has to figuratively look at himself, as in the mirror. He is confronted with a disturbing truth: change or die.
In my humble opinion, the mirror moment is the most potent of all the signposts. It takes you to the heart of your story. It helps you determine exactly the kind of novel you want to write––or that your writer mind is trying to tell you to write.
What Harry did was stop in the middle of his own troubles to help out someone weaker than himself. This is the Pet-the-Dog beat.
The difference is that the Care Package is about an existing relationship before the story begins. Pet-the-Dog is a sudden, new relationship that springs up in the midst of the trouble of Act II.
In a novel, the second doorway is a major crisis or setback, or some sort of clue or discovery.
The deepest darkness. The blackest night. The point when all seems lost. This is Lights Out. This is where it looks as if the Lead can’t possibly win in his struggle with death.
Q is an emotional impetus that is set up in Act I that comes back to provide inspiration or instruction at a critical moment in Act III.
Simply put, something happens that draws courage from the moral and emotional reservoir of the Lead.
What makes him stay and fight? The Q Factor, an emotional element that comes in when needed most.
The Final Battle is the whole point of the novel. It’s what everything is leading up to.
The Final Battle works simply because it has to be there or there is no story at all.
A story isn’t over until the character changes.
The power of your story is directly proportional to the readers’ experience of it, and the readers’ experience is directly proportional to the soundness of the structure.
