The Chicken Or The Egg?

The time-old question “which came first the chicken or the egg” is one of those moot questions we don’t waste our time on, but as authors, the “which comes first” is an important issue in developing sentence structure. I’m an author who loves the music of words and I listen to the cadence of a line and change the wording if it doesn’t provide the rhythm I want. This means I’m a person who needs to pay attention to the “cause and effect” element of my statement so I don’t change a sentence to meet one need while losing the impact of motivation and response.

Dwight Swain teaches the concept of MR unit, referring to the order in which words should fall. M stands for motivation and R for reaction. A person is always motivated by someone or something before he takes action. He’s hungry. He goes into the kitchen. He can’t see. He turns on the light. According to Swain’s teach once motivated the character’s follows the pattern of: feeling, action, speech. An excerpt from his book, Techniques of the Selling Novel provides this example. Look at these lines and place a 1, 2, 3, and 4 on the blanks to show the proper order of these sentences when considering the motivation and reaction.

______She Smiled.

______”How’s it going, Jill?” he asked.

______”Just fine, thanks.”

_____A glow of warmth crept through Jill.

According to Swain, here are th answers from top to bottom: 3, 1, 4, 2

“How’s it going Jill?” he asked. (Motivation)
A glow of warmth crept through Jill. (Feeling)
She smiled. (Action)
“Just fine, thanks.” (Speech)

This is the basic idea to consider when deciding which comes first as you structure your narration and dialogue. In all of your writing, consider cause and then effect.

Look at this sentence. She hurried to close the box when she heard Bill coming into the room.

In this case, I’ve give you effect first and cause second. A reader would face her closing the lock without understanding why she was in a hurry, so this sentence needs to he rewritten: She heard Bill coming into the room and hurried to close the box. In this order, we see the motivation and then the response or action following. This still leaves a hook because we don’t know why she fears Bill knowing she had unlocked the door or chest or whatever it was.

Though this may seem silly or unimportant, writing/storytelling can be improved by placing events in the cause and effect order. Her lungs failed her when she saw the glorious sunset. Turn it around, and it makes more sense. When she saw the glorious sunset, her lungs failed her. Now the sentence has more impact.

While cadence is important—the music of the words—don’t lose the cause and effect order in your novel. Readers want to know why something happened—so show them cause and then response.

Outlining a Novel - Step By Step

Not every author outlines a novel. I use a brief synopsis to set up my storyline not broken into scenes and I build from there. I build my characterization, and I know the beginning and ending of my novel along with the black moment. Then as I begin to write in more detail, I outline the next scenes. But I’ve had to outline a whole novel for an occasional publisher, and so here is what I learned from that experience. But you might ask, if you don’t outline is in worthwhile? My answer is yes.

Value of Outlining
• It provides a roadmap that helps you envision where you will begin your journey and where you’re headed. When you take a trip, you have a beginning point and a destination, but the adventures that happen in the middle can prove to be anything—interesting detours, car repairs, getting lost. But knowing where you’re headed keeps you focused on the destination.
• It forces you to brainstorm. It causes you to develop characters, select a setting which includes era, location, time of year. It compels you to select a genre whether a thriller, suspense, romance, paranormal, women’s fiction or comedy.
• It gives you confidence because you’ve answered numerous questions, and once you have a direction, you will begin to expand the brainstorming to unique ideas you may not have contemplated for the journey if you had just “climbed in your car and turned on the key.”
• It allows you to use techniques like foreshadowing events, problems, or clues which provides a hook for the readers.
• It helps you remember all the threads that must be tied together by the end of the novel.

Problems With Outlining
• You could stifle your creativity if you let it. Don’t give so much detail that you stop thinking outside the box.
• You may fear taking detours that can expand the story and adding new complications and obstacles.
• You may become bored with the story because you’ve made all the discoveries you think you can make.
• You may provide too many details that can bog an outline. Think skeleton or bare bones leaving out all details and emotions

Pre-Development of An Outline
Before beginning the process, answer the following questions
• Who will be your main character with type person, etc.?
• What is this problem or goal? What is the most important possession or person or treasure to your character at this moment in time?
• What problems arise between the character and his/her goal or the solution to his/her problem?
• What is the setting? Historical/contemporary? Urban/rural? What is the genre? Romance? Women’s fiction? Suspense? Paranormal? Thriller? What are the key events that move the characters toward resolving the problem or reaching the goal?

Outlining
Break your novel into chapters first, writing the gist of what you want to accomplish in each chapter. Next break the chapters into scenes with only enough detail to provide you with “the next step on your journey.” As you write the chapter, you still have a multitude of opportunities for creativity in where and how this scene will take place, who will be in the scene, what will you foreshadow, what will be the mood.

If you have a story with two or three plots running at the same time, do a chapter by chapter for each of these plots. When you expand into scenes for the whole novel, use color to highlight to designate the various plots as you arrange them into chapters. Make sure you give a good balance between the major plots so that the reader doesn’t lose interest in the side plot or doesn’t become confused. Keep each plot line clear by opening with reference to the characters involved in that plot. Example: detective, criminal, kidnapped child’s family.

For an excellent detailed example of an outline, visit Paperback Writer blog at:
http://pbackwriter.blogspot.com/2007/09/novel-outlining-101.html

The Sagging Character

I’ve written blogs and taught workshops on “the sagging middle” which refers to the loss of momentum in the middle of your novel. The long stretch between the beginning and ending can sometimes become lackluster and boring to a reader when it’s not providing enough to drive the story forward. But plots aren’t the only thing that can sag. Characters you thought were dynamic can become dull because their focus is on the same problem, or the personality and character remains unchanged and they seem to go nowhere. So what can you do when a character disappoints you?

1.) Does the character’s backstory include opportunities to grow?
As you create a character, dig deep into the character’s past. Find flaws that can undermine her, a secret that can destroy her or her goal, an experience she desires, a relationship that affects her life, or a need she cannot face. All of these elements provide means to expand the characterization, to help the character change and to grow as a person. Let’s say the relationship that affects a woman's life is a friend’s child who needs a home. Fear of failure is a flaw that can undermine success. Her desired experience is to learn to play football. The need she can’t face is her mother’s approval. Think about these additions to your backstory and imagine how adding one or two can ignite your novel and move it forward to an exciting or fulfilling ending.

2.) Is Your Character Too Sweet? Too Agreeable?
Without conflict the novel and the characters are bland. Create decisive characters who believe in or value things they are unwilling to change. They will fight to attain or hold fast to the belief or value. When a character is always agreeable, nothing happens to add tension to the novel. Allow things to go wrong. Your character plans the perfect picnic only to have it rain or to place ther event in an area with swarms of bees or ants. When she calls her friend for help, her friend doesn’t come to her aid. Give her a bad hair day or a bad attitude day. These are common for real people and you want your characters to be real.

3.) Does your character have a quirk or an obsession?
A quirk can add humor to your novel and liven your story. Let’s say the quirk is the character loves clothing from the seventies even when the style is inappropriate. An obsession can add tension when it affects the character’s ability to function in various situations. The need for neatness can be an obsession since it means everything must be lined up and in order. Everything put back where it belongs. Imagine this in a relationship with a laid back man and a neat-obsessive woman.

4) Is your character predictable?
Don’t dump all the backstory into the characterization immediately. Hold back a secret, a flaw, a need and bring it out when the story needs a “shot in the arm.” Most people are somewhat predictable. Our friends and family know what we like and what we value so when we make choices, they can predict how we will respond or know what we will chose. Readers do the same. Yet a character must change and grow in a novel to add depth and realism. We all change but it’s a slow process. In a novel, the change comes more quickly but with reasonable motivation for change that makes it acceptable. When you introduce a new problem to the novel, the character must now grapple and learn to handle the situation. This adds depth to the character and doesn’t allow them to sag.

I’m sure if you think about this you’ll come up with other ways to bolster the character and add dynamics to the story. These four ideas give you a start.

Ideas for Real Life Characters

Writers Digest had an excellent article on characterization in January 2011 written by David Corbett. A small part of that article was subtitled Real-Life Characters, and it offered a list of possible characters you might find in your own life. The author suggested you create a list of interesting people and provide details, physical appearance, and the effect this person had on you. This activity triggered a double idea which I’d like to share with you.

First, where do you get your characterization ideas? Your imagination is one place that works. It’s where I get most of my ideas. Another is from people you know or have known in your past. You may not want to use the specifics about the person, but it may stimulate your creativity and you can grab a characteristic from one person, a flaw from another, or an attribute from another and build your own original character.

A second idea came from the same part of the article and that is creating your own interesting characters or secondary characters by preparing a list of character types and then referring to them as you begin to build your plot and create your story ideas. Do you need conflict? Look at the list and decide if one of these characters might appear in your novel and add tension. Here’s a few ideas of my own and from the author’s list, but you can add many others from your own experience and then have a great character resource when you need it.

A neighborhood bully
A neighbor who causes you suspicion
A family member you are close to
A family member who brings out the best in you
A family member who brings out the worst in you
A friend who brings out the best in you
A friend who brings out the worst in you
A childhood friend you continue to see or hear from
Someone you had a secret crush on or felt an attraction
Your first love
Your favorite neighbor
Your least favorite neighbor
Your adult workplace nemesis
Your childhood nemesis
A person who believed in you
A favorite teacher
A person who annoys you
A person you consider needy
A love you lost
A stranger who touched your life
A person who impacted your life
Someone who constantly puts you down
A person you admire
A person you fear
Someone you would like to be
Any elderly neighbor you find intriguing
A person who taught you an important lesson

You can add many characters to this list and keep it for times when you desire to up your plot with something new or different. Keep notes on people you meet or who cross your path. You never know when someone might trigger a great character idea for you.