Write Great Fiction--Plot & Structure (25 page)

With the headlights system, you don't face that tendency. Here's how it can work.

Begin your journey, as always, with the LOCK system and back cover copy. You should have an idea of where you want to end up. That would be the final chapter. What sort of feeling are you going for? It can be vague and may even change radically, but it's always nice to start a journey with a destination in mind.

Using scene dynamics (
see chapter seven
) and the principles for starting off strong (chapter three), write your opening chapter.

When you get to the end of the chapter,
immediately
jot down your ideas for the next few chapters.

You should have plenty of story material cooking in your mind at this point. Now look at what your headlights see up ahead.

Generate scene ideas by asking the following questions:

• What is my character's emotional state at the end of the scene? How will he react in the next scene?
  
• What is the next action my character needs to take?
  
• What strong scene up ahead needs transitional scenes before it?
  
• Do I need to add any new characters? Has a character in the scene I've just written suggested other plot developments?
  

Your notes can be as full or as scanty as suits your preference. For example, let's say you've written an opening to your coming-of-age story, which has your lead character, a teenager named Sally, moving into a new house in a new town. At the end of the chapter, she sneaks a peek out her bedroom window and sees a boy from across the street staring at her.

Now what? You write the following:

Chapter 2:
Next day, Sally walks to store where she sees the boy again. He tries to talk to her. She runs away.

Chapter 3:
That night, Sally's father lectures her on how to make friends. They don't communicate well. Blow up.

Chapter 4:
Monday. First day at new school. Sally is harassed by a jerk. The mystery boy saves her.

And there you have your outline for the next few scenes. If you want to flesh out the scenes a little more before writing them, go ahead. For example:

Chapter 2:
Next day. Raining. Sally walks to the store to get some school supplies. She is at once enchanted by and somewhat afraid of her new environment. There are contrasting images of beautiful gardens and rundown homes, of fresh smells and the odor of dirty, wet streets. She thinks about her friends back in Connecticut. At the store, she is about to grab some notebook paper when she sees the boy. Once again, he's staring at her, this time with a smile on his face. He comes toward her. Frightened for some reason, Sally tries to get out of the store, bumping into people, etc. She is sure she's being stalked.

That's how, step by step, you both discover and outline your novel. You drive as far as your headlights allow. Enjoy the ride!

Some very successful writers, like Ken Follett, create long narrative outlines for their books. This is also called a
treatment
. It can run between twenty and forty pages, maybe more.

The narrative outline is written in the present tense. It can include a bit of dialogue, but only what is crucial to the story. What you're trying to create is a large canvas overview of the story.

Here is what a treatment might look like:

Randy Miller is a big man at Taft High School. He is the star of the football team and hangs around with all the right people.

So why should a scrawny little guy like Bob be of any interest to him? Because Bob is teased mercilessly by the bigger guys, yet seems to have a serene way of taking it. There is a serenity inside Bob that Randy wishes he could figure out.

Randy would like to talk to him, but doing so would be socially unacceptable — uncool! There is a real class system at school. This is especially evident at lunch time. There is only one cool table, where Randy and friends sit; and one definite outcast table where Bob sits, often alone.

One day Randy observes as his buddies pull down Bob's pants and stick him head first in a garbage can. As Bob struggles out amidst the laughter all around, Randy just shakes his head at him.“Man, you are such a dweeb. Why don't you stop being dweeby?”

“What do you mean?” Bob says.

“Everybody's got potential. You want me to teach you?”

Bob doesn't answer, and Randy just waves him off as a lost cause.

Meanwhile, Randy is struggling in American Lit, taught by the tough Mrs. Agnes. Tough because she cares about these kids, and will not let them just skate by. She tries to bring out of every student deeper insights than they otherwise have, through poetry and books. Bob does well in this class …

This narrative outline will be revised and edited several times until you feel you have a solid story.

As you already know from earlier chapters, I'm a big fan of the books of David Morrell, especially
Lessons From a Lifetime of Writing
. Morrell's method is geared toward getting deeper into your story idea, finding out why you really want to write it. It's a trip into the subconscious and the place where real writing power resides.

It's a simple concept. You write a letter to yourself. You ask yourself questions about your idea. The most important question is,
Why?
Keep asking that one over and over.

I used this method for my novel
Breach of Promise
. Here is the first part of what I wrote:

Why am I writing this? I am writing this because I want readers to
feel
the story of a man coming to learn what it is to be a father, only to have the system tear his guts out. And the fact that he's discriminated against even while doing what's right … wow. What does he do?

Is that all? Well, I want readers to love Mark and follow his spiritual journey. And why do people love someone? If he
cares
about someone else (his daughter, of course; another character?). If he is
vulnerable
(worries, fears, hopes — and he's the
underdog
).

What, exactly, is the journey about? He goes from being a guy trying to be an actor, to someone who discovers deeper values — -his daughter, for one. He really loves his daughter.

Why? What is it about having a daughter that is so important to
this guy
? Maybe he had a kid sister? Who died in a terrible way? And maybe Maddie helps him cope with that. (Or maybe that's too much. It detracts from the real part of the story, which is just him trying to get Maddie back?)

Is there some other reason for Mark to be so attached to Maddie? Maybe because he's never been really successful at anything — he failed at baseball, even though injured, and his acting deal isn't coming along. There might be a moment where Mark realizes that he had better be a success for his own daughter. Too many other people mess this job up. Let's get back to the spiritual journey.

Every day I would add to this journal, deepening my understanding of the material. This is a powerful technique even NOPS will love.

If you are a pure OP, if you desire to know just about everything that is going to happen in your novel before you begin writing, here's a simple plan to help you get there. I call it the Borg outline.

The Borg, as
Star Trek
fans know, is a cybernetic life form that assimilates all life forms it can in order to create a collective, advanced consciousness. If you are a super OP and you want that kind of all-encompassing system, this will work for you.

You go from the general to the specific, and then you tweak the specifics until you're ready to write.

Here are the steps for you to follow:

[1] Define the LOCK elements.
As discussed in chapter one
, a solid plot needs at least four things:

• A Lead
  
• An objective for the Lead
  
• Confrontation in the form of an opposing force
  
• An idea of what kind of knockout ending you want
  

So spend a good deal of time defining your LOCK elements. It can be as simple as this:
Sam Jones is a cop who wants to find out who really murdered the mayor. He is opposed by the killer, who turns out to be the mayor's wife. In the end he is triumphant, but I want the feeling to be bittersweet
.

That's very general, as it should be. If you're going to construct a complete outline you don't want to commit yourself too quickly at any point in the proceedings. Stay fairly loose to give your imagination some breathing room.

[2] Write your back cover copy.
As mentioned elsewhere, begin by getting your summary statement into shape. See Appendix B for a worksheet for this part of your outline. This will be your overall story guide as you continue to put together the outline.

[3] Create the overall structure.
Using the principles in chapter two
, begin to get a sense of your overall structure. Think in terms of three acts. For example:

Act I:
Sam gets the case.

Act II:
Sam struggles to solve the case.

Act III:
Sam solves the case.

Next, think about the two doorways of no return. Ask yourself why Sam must solve the case. What incident is going to force Sam to take the case? It might be as simple as being assigned the case. That means he has a duty that he must obey. That would be the first doorway.

Then Sam comes across a major clue or suffers a possible setback, which becomes the second doorway. This may be a vague scene at first, but write it down in general terms either on an index card or however else you like to keep track of your scenes.

Come up with a possible ending scene and add that to your list.

[4] Do some character work.
If you like to do extensive character biographies, now would be the time to work on those. You should at least know the minimum information as laid out in
chapter four
and the character arc as discussed in
chapter nine
. Take a few days just to work on characters. Make them colorful and unique because this will suggest possible scenes.

I find it handy to distill all my character work into a one- or two-page grid with the following information:

[5] Create act summaries.
You have three acts already laid out. Give a summary of each act. What is going to be accomplished in each? We are getting more specific now. For example:

ACT 1

Sam Jones is a New York cop. He has been on the job nearly twenty years, the last five as a detective. He has a wife and daughter, but things are not so good at home. His wife has been hitting the bottle pretty hard for the last few years but won't go to seek treatment. His daughter is thirteen and rebellious. Sam is from a family of four boys and is clueless about how to raise or relate to a daughter. This is affecting his work. He has not been as sharp on the job lately, and he has heard about it from on high.

When the mayor of New York City is murdered in a particularly grisly fashion, Sam gets the case. This is the doorway of no return because this is Sam's duty.

ACT 2

Sam and his partner, Art Lopez, begin at the crime scene and encounter a sloppy ME who seems new. A series of witness interviews follows, each one adding perplexity to the case.

Meanwhile, his daughter has started smoking and staying out at night. Sam's wife is beside herself and seems to be cracking up. Sam has no idea what to do about either one of them.

A clue points to the mayor's office as the source of a possible hit on the mayor. How could that be? As Sam and Art close in on some answers, trouble comes their way in the form of an assassination attempt. The two of them figure out that there is something very big going on behind the scenes. A conspiracy? This clue is the second doorway. Sam is going to be forced to confront a much bigger problem than he thought.

ACT 3

Sam begins to focus on the mayor's chief of staff. He follows him around, but is not satisfied with what he sees.

He gets a call from the hospital informing him that his wife has overdosed on sleeping pills and nearly died.

Torn between his personal and professional obligations, Sam almost gives up his job. But then he discovers that the chief of staff is having an affair with the mayor's window. The clues fall into place.

Sam confronts the two of them and is almost killed by their hit men accomplices. But he survives.

Sam quits the force to dedicate himself to his family.

[6] Create chapter summary lines.
For each act, start creating one-line summaries of possible chapters. Again, you can put these on index cards or simply list them. You will be manipulating them a lot, so be flexible. Some of your chapter lines for act one might go like this:

Prologue:
The mayor is murdered.

Chapter 1:
Sam questions a witness in an unrelated homicide. The witness freaks out.

Chapter 2:
Sam is dressed down by his captain for being overzealous.

Chapter 3:
Sam gets drunk and complains to his partner. Doesn't want to go home.