Saturday, July 9, 2011

STEP TWO and THREE – FINDING WHAT YOUR CHARACTER WANTS and WHY.

RECAP OF STEP ONE


The task from THREE STEPS TO FINDING A STORY: - STEP ONE was designed to help you find a character.

You should have ended up with
  • a cluster drawing of at least 20 possible characters
  • a character from that list who has the most potential for conflict/struggle.
A quick memory jog, your character can struggle
  • With other people
  • With themselves
  • With society
  • With nature
  • With the supernatural
  • With machines
  • With destiny
If you aim to finish a novel, or even a short stor,y you will be spending a lot of time with your main character so remember to pick the one who
  • appeals to you the most
  • has the most potential FOR STRUGGLES to be built into their life
I chose a stow away on a space craft for my character. 

STEP TWO – FINDING WHAT YOUR CHARACTER WANTS.

Follow the same process as you did for STEP ONE.
  • Write the character in the middle of a large sheet of paper. (This time I used an envelope that used to hold x-rays.) I’m not suggesting here that you write your character's name – do that if you have a name, but what has to go in that bubble is the character information you chose from STEP ONE. I chose STOWAWAY ON A SPACE CRAFT.


  • I drew twenty lines and set a kitchen timer for 10 minutes. With three minutes to spare I had written something on each arrow so I quickly sketched out another eight lines.
  • I realised when I’d finished that I’d blurred the edges a bit between wants/needs and motivations but that’s OK. Remember this process is about getting ideas down, not censoring them.
Pick the WANT or NEED that has the most potential for a story that’s full of What’s the worst thing that can happen now? moments. Full of opportunites for you to write STRUGGLES into your main character's life.

STEP THREE – FINDING YOUR MAIN CHARACTER'S MOTIVATION.
(Why do they want or need what they want or need?)

Follow the same process as you did for STEPS ONE and TWO only this time put the want or need in the bubble. I chose innocent fugitive from justice from my STEP TWO CLUSTER DRAWING. From my STEP THREE - WANT or NEED cluster drawing (not reproduced here) I chose: to find the real perpetrator of the crime and bring him/her back to Earth to face justice.

I can now use the decisions I have made to produce a ONE SENTENCE SUMMARY.

The ONE SENTENCE SUMMARY is the most important piece of information I need to start my story. It will keep me on track as I think about, craft and edit my story.

I haven’t got a name, age, gender, crime, occupation, nationality or race for my character. In fact I have hardly developed my character at all, yet. That's fine. I can do cluster drawing to discover that information later. Right now X, Y and Z will do.

X, falsely accused of Y, stows away on an earth spacecraft to find the real criminal Y and bring him/her back to Earth for justice.

My next logical cluster drawing would be WHAT HAS X BEEN FALSELY ACCUSED OF? 

How many times have your read books or watched movies with a similar theme?

Georges Polti, born in 1868, drawing on the work of other writers, concluded that there are 36 basic story plots.
  1. Deliverance
  2. Supplication
  3. Crime Pursued by Vengeance
  4. Vengeance taken for kindred upon kindred
  5. Pursuit
  6. Disaster
  7. Falling Prey to Cruelty of Misfortune
  8. Revolt
  9. Daring Enterprise
  10. Abduction
  11. The Enigma 
  12. Obtaining
  13. Enmity of Kinsmen
  14. Rivalry of Kinsmen
  15. Murderous Adultery
  16. Madness
  17. Fatal Imprudence
  18. Involuntary Crimes of Love
  19. Slaying of a Kinsman Unrecognized
  20. Self-Sacrificing for an Ideal
  21. Self-Sacrifice for Kindred
  22. All Sacrificed for Passion
  23. Necessity of Sacrificing Loved Ones
  24. Rivalry of Superior and Inferior
  25. Adultery
  26. Crimes of Love
  27. Discovery of the Dishonor of a Loved One
  28. Obstacles to Love
  29. An Enemy Loved
  30. Ambition
  31. Conflict with a God
  32. Mistaken Jealousy
  33. Erroneous Judgement
  34. Remorse
  35. Recovery of a Lost One
  36. Loss of Loved Ones.[1]
So, don't loose heart if your ONE SENTENCE SUMMARY sounds familiar because this is where the real fun begins.
The task of the creative, imaginative, writer is to tell a story that has been written a million times before in a fresh way. This is where brainstorming with cluster drawings of X Y and Z works brilliantly in helping the writer discover the most imaginative yet credible combinations.

Play around with your cluster drawings over the next couple of weeks until you come up with the ONE SENTENCE SUMMARY that is both credible and imaginative

This process will help you avoid two dimensional, cardoard cut out characters in predictable situations - a sure sign of immature writing..


[1] The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations. By Georges Polti)