Chapter Blocks that Keep Readers Reading by Ronda Hinrichsen

Most writers know the protagonists of their novels must have an overall goal that propels the length of the novel. Without it, their story falls flat and readers stop reading. But what we authors sometimes forget is that the protagonist in each chapter/scene also needs to have a specific goal he wants to accomplish in that scene or chapter. Furthermore, that goal needs to be related to the character's main story goal, and the scene/chapter must have an obstacle to that goal. 

CHARACTER GOAL + OBSTACLE = CONFLICT and CONFLICT ENCOURAGES ACTION. Action is the cornerstone of great stories. 

Keep this formula in mind as you begin your chapter, Better yet, figure out each element before you write your chapter. A quick outline of the main points of the struggle between your protagonist and his opposition (it's often another person) can not only help you organize your story and keep your characters moving toward their goals, but it can also help you hasten your writing process. I've always found it much easier to write quickly when I know beforehand what I want to accomplish and/or write. Figuring it out as I go always leads to more rewrites.

Finally, according to Evan Marshall's The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing (and I've found it to be true), when you reach the end of your scene or chapter, make sure your character does one of these three things as it relates to his current goal:

1. He fails to accomplish his goal,

2. He fails to accomplish his goal and learns of a new, even larger obstacle.

3. He succeeds in accomplishing his goal, but he also learns of a new, even larger obstacle. 

Each of these endings will keep your reader wanting to know what will happen next. On the other hand, if your character only succeeds, your story ends, and your reader closes your book.

(This article was originally posted on September 10, 2015 on the Author's Think Tank blog.)

Scene Chart

This won't be a very big post, but when I was recently reading Michelle Jefferies blog I came across this link. It looks like it would be very helpful for writers who are struggling to make sure their scenes actually "peform" as they should. Check it out. http://edittorrent.blogspot.com/2008/08/scene-charts.html

What They Did Right--Rebecca Talley

A common cliche reads: "Love" makes the world go round. Maybe this is true for some worlds, but in fiction, it's not love that propels the newly created world, it's goals/motivation/the characte's personal desire. In an earlier post, I wrote:

Every well-structured story must contain two MAIN goals, or "problems"; i.e., a "surface" problem and an "inner conflict." In simple terms, this means that your protagonist must have a goal she desperately wants to accomplish, and she must grow--emotionally or psychologically--as she reaches for it.

And this is exactly one of the writer's tools Rebecca Talley did right in her latest book, "Heaven Scent." And she did it right from the get-go.

Chapter one of "Heaven Scent" begins with Talley's main character, Liza, in the middle of a dramatic experience (the inciting incident): she's a high school basketball star at the free throw line in the final second of a state championship game. Yet throughout this heart-pumping event, Liza is stressed over something more important to her: her relationship with her father, or more specifically, her father's apparent disinterest in her and her family. And when he doesn't show up for her game, as he'd promised he would, Liza's goal, in fact, the entire book's goal, becomes that she must find a way to bring her father back into her life.

This is an author's best, "opening a story" pattern--inciting incident, problem, character's goal to overcome the problem--but after that, the author must do what she can to keep that goal forefront in the reader's mind. Authors don't want readers to forget, after all, even through occasional diversions, the real reason they're reading this book, which is to find out if the character they've invested their time and heart into really will accomplish his or her goal.

I recently asked Mrs. Talley about her writing process, especially in relation to her character's goal.


Q: How close is your book/story related to your personal life? I mean, you’re tall, and your character is a basketball player. Were you a basketball player in high school?

A. My book/story is related to my personal life in that I grew up in CA and I did play basketball in high school, though I wasn’t gifted by any means. I wanted to play well and, sometimes, I did, but I wanted my main character to be the kind of player I never was.

I think everything we write is personal because we’re writing from our own unique point of view and how we interpret life. Our life’s experiences can’t help but show up in our writing.

Q. Where did you get your idea for your main character’s story goal of trying to reconnect with her father?

A. I know a lot of teenagers who don’t feel connected to their dads. The dads go out and earn the living and take care of things, but sometimes forget to forge a strong relationship with their kids. I think the kids who have a strong relationship with a father-figure do better in life.

My father passed away when I was very young and I never seemed to connect with the father-figure in my own life. I thought it would be interesting to explore that as the main storyline and use the feelings and frustrations I experienced as a teen.
A. Tell me a little about your writing process for Heaven Scent. Did you follow an outline? One of the writing tools you used effectively was giving your main character a clear story goal, regularly reminding the reader of that goal, and finally having your character “achieve” her goal in an “unwanted” way. Did you have this goal and the end in mind before you began your book?

A. I think I did the writing process backwards because I outlined the story after I’d rewritten it several times. I wanted to make sure it flowed and that there was a clear goal in each scene. After it was accepted, I outlined it again and revised it.

I knew the end long before I began the story. I’ve read Dwight Swain’s and Jack Bickham’s books and tried to make sure I followed their advice to keep the story goal very clear. The twist I wanted to put on it was that she attained her story goal, but in a unique, unexpected way.

Q. Now for the “scary” question. One writing “taboo” is to have the main character’s problems “magically,” or in your case, “heavenly” solved; and yet, your implementation of this tool did not seem foreign to me. Perhaps that’s because I, along with many readers, have experienced communications from those who’ve passed on and readily accepted such a possibility. Did you, however, have any misgivings about using this device? Why or why not?

A. Actually, I hadn’t ever thought of that. I’ve never felt the ending was a technique or a device, only what needed to happen in the story. The solution, or the help my main character receives, isn’t fictional to me because I have experienced it, though not in the same way. I know others who have had similar experiences. I knew I wanted my main character to have this experience for many different reasons, but most importantly, because I feel the connection between heaven and earth is so strong and the veil is so thin.
Thank you, Rebecca Talley. I truly appreciate the time you've taken to meet with me and my readers today. But I must also say, I agree with you. The connection between heaven and earth is strong, and the times I recognize that fact most is when I'm helping others reach for their vital, eternal goals. Even when those "others" are characters in my stories. Perhaps it's the same with you?

Maturation Plot

I was just checking out your really informative blog and I noticed your "how to write" offer of help so I thought I'd ask. I'm about to write my first screenplay. its a maturation, coming of age, rites of passage plot about two teenage brothers trying to survive after the apocalypse. their father returns to take them on a journey that they don't wish to travel. what advice can you give me on tackling such a plot?

your help is most appreciated

When I am constructing my plots, I do two things first, but not necessarily in this order: 1) study and outline the plot points in a few movies, books, and plays that have similar structures, and 2) study relative reference books. When I've completed that process, I review my notes and pick out the plot points which are common to all references.

Next, using the above information, I create a rough outline of those common elements, as well as the ones I want to be in my book, and then I begin to "flesh out" the outline and fill in the gaps with my own characters and situations.

Two books that might be helpful to you with your story are "Blueprint for Writing" by Rachel Friedman Ballon (she covers screenwriting) and "20 Master Plots (And How to Build Them)." I've referred to these two books in past blogs because they have been tremendously helpful to me.

As I read your plot description, it appears to be a combination of two plot lines: Maturation and Adventure? Quest? Discovery? I don't know your story well enough to tell, but if I were you, I would study the requirements for the two you believe they are and weave them together as you construct your plot. That's what I had to do on the romantic suspense book I recently finished (it includes elements of both maturation and quest/rescue) and on the romantic suspense novel I'm currently working on.

As I stated in my previous blogs on "Wretched Excess," I can not entirely cover all that Tobias has to say about each plot, but as a bit of information to get you started, here are a few key elements of the Maturation plot:

1. The maturation plot focuses on children progressing toward adulthood.
2. "Start your story where the protagonist has reached the point in her life at which she can be tested as an adult" and then hit her with a"belief shaking" test like death, parent divorce, abandonment, or something else "apocalyptic."
3. Show your character resisting then undergoing gradual, psychological and moral "change."
4. Decide what price your character pays for this lesson and show how he copes with it.

Hope this helps. Good luck with your screenplay.

Another Wretched Excess

In response to Tristi Pinkston's comment in my last entry, I thought it would be helpful to give a more detailed description of what the "Wretched Excess" plot is. Basically, it describes a protagonist's mental decline or shows how he is pushed by outside forces to act in a manner outside "civilized" behavior. "Another way to put it," says Tobias, is "normal people under abnormal circumstances, and abnormal people under normal circumstances."

The literary example Tobias used to delineate this structure was Shakespeare's play, "Othello." In it, Othello, a rational king, is "worked upon" by his enemy, Iago--Iago exploits Othello's jealous nature through lies and innuendos--until Othello finally smothers to death his beloved and devoted wife . In other words, this rational man's character/mentality declined because it was shoved and warped into abnormal circumstances until he committed what he would have never even considered in the beginning of the play. Thus, Othello's actions were "wretched" and it's "excessive."

Did this help?

Exception to the Rule: a List

I found another good list for writers. It was published in an old (March 2003) issue of Writer's Digest's magazine's "Novel Writer," and it came from an article by James Scott Bell, titled "Exception to the Rule. " In summary, this is what it said:

As most of us know, "show don't tell," is the rule. However, there are important exceptions--reasons--we should sometimes tell instead of show. For instance, "telling" might be the quickest way to delineate a character's emotions or set up for a forthcoming, intense scene; but the best way to know if a scene should be told or shown is to rank it from 0-10 on a scene intensity scale.

And now the list, or in this case, the scale:

10= Extreme emotion, handle with care. Very few scenes per book should hit this level. Show.

8-9=Big scenes and turning points. Show.

6-7=Conflict, important emotions and personal turmoil, sharp dialogue. Show.

5= The middle point. Lean toward telling on any scene at this level or below. This is a good place to start scenes that are about to build to a greater intensity.

3-4=Transitions and set up scenes. Another good place to start "about to build" scenes.

1-2=Danger! Get out as soon as you can.

0=DO NOT ENTER. Includes lengthy setting descriptions, especially in the first chapter.

There you have it! So now all you have to do is figure out what level each of your scenes are at and plot them on a graph (just a suggestion) to see if their linear progression makes sense to your novel. Right?

Or is it write?

Scenes

What is a scene? It is a section of drama, like a brick is a section of a wall or a step is a section of a staircase, without which the entire structure, or story, would fall. And just like any brick or step, it has a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Generally, it begins with action, and it begins at a point that 1)makes sense to your story, and 2)takes place sometime after the prior scene it most relates to. For instance, if you have two Point of View Characters (POV) and scenes A, B, & C are from POV #1, followed by scene D which is POV #2, your next POV #1 scene would come after and relate to scene C.

This leads me to two other elements each scene must have. First, it must have a purpose; i.e., a reason for taking up your story's precious time and space. If it doesn't, you will at the least, lose your reader's attention, and at the most, fail to convey your story's message. One important way to create this focus is to make sure your POV has a goal to accomplish in that scene. Another is to make sure the scene, itself, has a goal. For example, is the scene's purpose to introduce the opposition? To hide a clue? Show that your POV is falling in love? If you can't answer these questions, chances are, you need to eliminate the scene.

Second, scenes must be "causal." In other words, scenes must build upon each other in a cause and effect manner until they create the complete whole. Another author described it this way: scene A leads to scene B, and then to scene C. And later scenes F and G cannot happen if scene B was not thoroughly developed.

Another vital characterisitic of a scene (the majority of the middle section) is that it must contain dramatic conflict. Sometimes those conflicts are great battles between nations or even two people, but other times, that conflict--the sought after "tension" of your story--is created simply by showing someone or something standing in the way of your POV's scene goal or story goal.

Finally, a scene ends when your POV either reaches (or more likely, fails) to accomplish his goal and creates a new goal, thereby propelling your story (and reader) forward.

So that, in a nutshell (or a toolbox, in this case), is what a scene is. Much of my understanding of this structure comes not only from my own experience, but also from Rachel Friedman Ballon's book, "Blueprint for Writing." I have also found good points in Randy Ingermanson's article, "Writing the Perfect Scene."

You might want to give them a try.

Lists of Importance

So you've gone to the hardware store to pick up a few items for your house building project. You buy roofing nails (tons of them), tar, and several sheets of plywood; but when you get home, you realize you forgot the one thing you really needed for that days project: sewer drainpipe .

How could you have forgotten such an important item? I know, I know, we've all done it. You failed to use a list.

The same thing can happen when writing your story or novel.

Over the years, I've learned to keep several lists. For example, I complete a list of traits for each of my characters, I list plot points to help me stay focussed, and I constantly refer to my list of characteristics (such as brevity and clarity) I want to incorporate in my writing style. But one list stands above the others: my "Why I Write" list.

I wrote my "Why I Write" list when I began writing seriously--for money, anyway--about sixteen years ago. It includes statements most writers feel, such as "Not writing would feel like death" and "It's simply something I must do." But it also verbalizes beliefs that are personal to me--beliefs; i.e., messages--I want to infuse in my writing. For instance, I believe there is great power in the written word, and we writers have a divine responsibilty to use that power to further God's kingdom. Similarly, I believe it's vital for me to produce works of goodness and virtue to thwart the opposite influences. And I truly desire to strengthen what is great and noble within each reader.

Those things, among others, are why I write; but more than that, they are words--my own words--that can lift me from "rejection depression" and inspire me to improve and work harder. They are, somewhat but not entirely like sewer drainpipes, the necessary things I must not forget.

Perhaps such a list can work for you.

The Plot Block

Our “original” house, at its most basic level, is a copy of other men’s work. For example, it is a ranch style house with a large front porch. Because you have seen many such houses (built by innumerable men and women), you have a good idea of what my house looks like; and yet, at the same time, you have no idea. You don’t yet know what pitch of roof we’ve chosen, how many windows we built into it, or even what color the siding is. Or, is there siding at all? What if we chose brick? These, and so many other details are still a mystery to you, yet they are what makes our house “ours.”

So it is with plots. Every story is a copy of another man’s work. The trick is to mix and match the details to meet your character’s specific interests, needs, and desires.

Don’t believe me? Consider these examples:
1. The Harry Potter series oozes with mythic characters and mythic journeys.
2. Several episodes of the television series, “Home Improvement,” were based off plots introduced in the earlier sitcom, “The Cosby Show.”
3. The classic novel, “Jane Eyre” is a twist on the fairytale, “Beauty and the Beast.”
4. “Rebecca,” another, more recent classic novel, has elements of both “Jane Eyre” and “Beauty and the Beast.”
5. Mary Higgins Clark’s novel, “A Cry in the Night” is based on the original tale of “The Little Mermaid.”

Still don’t believe me? Then you must be one of those writers who has to watch and see and sweat out the truth on your own. But that’s okay. There’s much of that “do-it-yourself” characteristic in every writer. That’s how we improve. How we create that story that is explicitly our own.

Happy copying.

Block Number Three: Story Problems

Okay, so our house has a plan, and it has people. Now what is its purpose? For some , the answer is obvious--to be lived in! But that wasn't quite enough for my husband and I. We wanted a home our one day grown children would want to come back to--to visit. We wanted them to feel welcome there. To have things to do (hence, we have a farm, a game room, a theater--all still in various levels of completion), and we wanted them to feel like there was room for them and their families (several bedrooms). Hence, our goal became: We wanted a gathering place.

Understandably, this is not everyone's "house" goal, nor should it be. But what is important is that we have a goal and we are working toward it. It's the same with the characters in our stories.

Every well-structured story must contain two MAIN goals, or "problems"; i.e., a "surface" problem and an "inner conflict." In simple terms, this means that your protagonist must have a goal she desperately wants to accomplish, and she must grow--emotionally or phsychologically--as she reaches for it.

Consider these examples:

In Disney's "Mulan," the protagonist, Mulan, seeks to save her father from going to war and later seeks to save her country (her surface problem). She also doesn't understand who she is, nor does she recognize her self-worth. This is her inner conflict.
If you know this story well, you can readily see how her struggle to complete her surface problem leads to the resolution of her inner conflict.

When the classic movie, "The African Queen," opens, the main character, Rosie, is religiously staunch, naive, and totally dependant on her preacher brother. This is her inner conflict--or where her "character" begins.

Inevitably, however, her brother dies, and she is thrust into the "care" of an uncouth ship captain. Together, they decide on the story's surface goal--to sink a german warship. This goal is not easy--which is the way we, the audience, want it--and as they work together, Rosie and the captain not only fall in love, but Rosie's character grows; she learns independance, acceptance, and how to love unconditionally.

In both these examples, the protagonist's inner conflict was "introduced," not "thoroughly discussed" prior to the surface goal. There is a reason for that. Inner conflict is directly related to the character, and these two stories are character driven stories. If you are writing a plot driven story, however, it might be appropriate to begin with the surface problem. In fact, that is how my short stories for the Friend usually begin, but I say that with caution, especially in relation to books, because, it is a story's character combined with his problem that "hooks" readers.

And that, after all, is the writer's initial goal. To hook readers.

Block Number One: Story Blueprint

Several year ago, my husband and I began building our dream home. Unlike most home builders, we had not only NEVER built a house before, but we had also decided we were going to build it ourselves without going into debt--no matter how long it took. So, with stars in our eyes, blueprints in our pockets, and an old backhoe under our--well, you know--we began to dig the footings.

It's the same with most new-to-the-craft writers. We get a fantastic story idea that sets our hearts pounding and our imaginations soaring. "This will be so good," we tell ourselves. "No one has ever done anything like this before. I might even change the world."

But, unlike our family's house-building adventure, many writers stop right there--at the dream. Why? Because they don't know where to start; they failed to create a blueprint.

How do you create one, you ask? The formula is simple: Character + Conflict (story problem) = Story. In other words, you must formulate a plan; i.e., so-and-so (your main character) wants this or that or another so-and-so (the problem) and overcomes obstacles, each harder than the next (the story), until she either reaches her goal or discovers she wants, has earned., and ultimately chooses something much more worthy of her efforts. That's it.

There are, of course, many other blocks necessary to creating the perfect story, but the blueprint is the first one. And now that you know that much, your adventure begins.

Coming soon: Block Number Two: Character