Structure for Story – Week 3 Logline to 7.5 Steps
Creating, Planning and Revising for Authenticity Week 3 Overview
} Brainstorming, Playing and Structure – using constraint for creativity } Homework Review } Great job – keep playing } 7.5 Steps } Bring those questions as we move along. } You will receive a pdf hand out of this presentation. Only turn in those items marked HOMEWORK Brainstorming, Story and Structure
} Are you doing multiple approaches? } Constraints demand creative solutions and limit options at the same time. It’s easier to write an essay about a famous poet with three toes and to write one about “anything.” Use the constraints to push yourself. } The outline and the structure are not the same thing. We are building a tool in this class. It will serve you in good stead when making decisions, getting started and knowing when it’s done. Homework Review
} Judith: Protagonist: A 10 year old in 1590’s Stratford upon Avon seeks to assuage her sorrow about her father’s absence and her mother’s constant scolding by making up plays in the forest with her twin brother and their chums. } Antagonist: She seduces a younger man to marry into a higher social standing, but when she’s left with 3 young children, her bitterness takes it out on the twins, her servants, and her husband when he comes home. } Wendy: Protagonist: A young woman must switch from award-winning Celtic/blues fiddler to classical violin player to please her fanatic British kidnapper and win her shocking escape. } Antagonist: A failed classical violinist, turned fiddle player from the UK, kidnaps a family friend’s daughter and lies to her that if she can stop Celtic and blues fiddle playing and learn classical violin to superstar performance level, he will free her.
} Bryant: A quirky but lovable ten-year-old boy named Henry dedicates himself to finding one true friend in fifth grade, despite his difficulty relating to peers and a series of unexpected challenges that make him feel more and more misunderstood. } . Homework Review -2
} Jean: Protagonist: Melanie Albright, still reeling after her now ex-husband’s betrayal and resentful of the lack of sympathy from her grown children, escapes to Venice alone for two weeks to focus on herself for a change in the hopes of letting go of the past and rekindling her passion for still-life painting, but instead when a long-submerged memory of her abusive behavior towards her daughter suddenly resurfaces, the carefully crafted façade she’s created begins to crumble, forcing her to face her own guilt and complicity in the breakdown of her family. } Antagonist: Isobel Albright manages to reach across the Atlantic with her neediness and emotional instability to suck all the oxygen out of her mother Melanie’s vacation in Venice } Jody: Protagonist: A depressed and isolated mother-of-four is seemingly randomly shot outside her home in Oakland and heads back to recuperate at her hometown in NZ where she is forced to reconcile with her estranged sisters when they become embroiled in a mystery involving a man they’ve each seen before in three disparate places – at a court case in Oakland, a nightclub in Afghanistan and a press conference in Auckland. Homework Review - 3
} Deborah: Protagonist: As the world population declines due to a virus that leaves women sterile, 17-year-old Zeke falls in love with Deirdre, a young woman who wants to end her pregnancy, and decides to help her, in violation of his isolated community’s strict rules. } Antagonist: When the leader of a small community that has isolated itself to prevent being infected by a pandemic that leaves women sterile discovers that Zeke, one of his community members, is harboring a pregnant young woman, he takes her captive, intending to trade her future child, and threatens Zeke with all sorts of terrible things if he doesn’t conform to the community’s strict rules. Logline to 7.5 Step Outline } You have the arc from your logline } It’s one step down in granularity. Still high level, sweeping. } Keep an eye on balance – too much backstory? Too little second act? } Want vs. Need - what drives Act 2? } Obstacles, obstacles, obstacles. Did I mention obstacles? } Still working with as a brainstorming tool – use the questions moving from logline to outline as a way to feed your subconscious. } Logic/character motivation check } You will use all of this information – but maybe not in the order you develop it } It’s very common to start a story in medias res (without backstory – in the middle of action). You will still need to convey the world somehow before the change of the inciting incident – though it may not be the first thing you show. Step 1 – Ordinary World
} Dickens to his time with this – you might not. Or you might. Up to you. } Establishes the world of the character, who and what and where they are in a social context, and often the character’s flaw and its consequences. } Example: Swamplandia – we learn about Ava’s family before her mother dies and before the adventure that’s essentially all of act two. We also get who they are socially, economically, the tensions in the family that will drive them along their story lines. We believe later actions because of what is set up here.
Step 2 – Inciting Incident
} A lot of books start with this and then loop back a bit to give the ordinary world information. } It’s a shift in the world of the character. It upsets the world and the protagonist would like the world to not change at all. } Doesn’t have to be one scene – it’s at a higher level – could be sequence. } Example: Swamplandia: Ava’s mother has died in the Ordinary World portion. Her brother runs away, her dad leaves to go find him. This unsettles their world. So when something happens, regular means won’t bring back the status quo. Even after she is left alone, Ava feeds her alligators and does the usual things. When her sister takes off, she can’t not go after her because no one else is there to help. She initially tries not to go after her sister, and then she does. Step 3(.5) – Act 1 Decision } Up to this point the character has tried to avoid doing anything too strenuous to return things to normal. } Something breaks the camel’s back and the protagonist is shown that the only way back to the normal she wants is by taking action. } Step 3 is the decision to take action } 3.5 is the plan of action. It launches us into the second act and gives us clear idea of the goal of the second act. } HINT: Second Act IS the story. } Example: Swamplandia: Ava let’s a stranger stay with her in her home after her sister leaves, but when her sister doesn’t come back as usual, she has to go find her. Step 4 - Midpoint } Middle of the story – balance – from here on out things pick up pace. You can feel it } Point of no return. Up to this point the main character is invested, but there are outs – ways back however imperfect. After the midpoint, there’s no going back. } New information, either for the protagonist or the audience. } Example: Swamplandia: Ava has set off on a quest – a somewhat ridiculous, metaphysical quest, to find her sister. She pushes away help when she is offered it because she wants to believe in the story of her search for her sister. Her helper - the Bird Man – keeps her from calling out to people, playing along with her fantasy. When they meet a sheriff, she pretends she knows the bird man better than she does – she cuts off help from the outside, only after understanding what she has done. Step 5: Low Point
} Some aspect of the main character’s flaw has been hampering her up to now. Even though she may have made great progress on building a community and learning new opportunities, she still hasn’t finished the story – so she messes up costing her her allies, and leaving her isolated and alone. } Coming out of the low point, the character has learned something (or not) and emerges with a plan to face off with the antagonist. } Example: Swamplandia: Bird Man is a regular ol’ weirdo and rapes Ava. She runs into the swamp to escape him now that she is isolated in the Floridian wilderness. She has nothing – no water, no sunscreen, nothing. Her plan – to make it to civilization. Step 6: Final Battle } This ( or these) battle(s) are the showdowns that create theme. Select your challenge well, as it is this challenge your character faces that will define how your reader feels at the end of the book. } Must be tied to character’s need for growth, must be as high stakes as possible. } Example: Swamplandia: Ava, in the Floridian wilderness runs into folkloric characters and memories of her mother and gets away. She gets bitten by an alligator. She is taking on the swamp, and her history in a visceral, physical challenge. The story of it all and the reality. When she survives, her relationship to all that has come before has changed. New Ordinary World } Something has changed – in the character, in the world, in the reader. This section highlights that change. } Might be the rewards of over coming the flaw or the consequences of failing to do so } Short! This shouldn’t take up that much of the story } Remember In Media Res?.
} Example: Swamplandia: Ava wins the reuniting of her family after it had blown apart in the wake of her mother’s death. She has lost some of the wildness of the swamp, and the ending is bittersweet - she grows up and gains wisdom and loses innocence. Secret
} Swamplandia has two different main characters. I have followed only one – if you have two parallel story lines, you can use two outlines } You may still want one additional one to give a 10k foot view about how they intersect – reflect off of one another. } Ava’s brother Kiwi has his own adventures!! Your Turn
} Again, we’ve covered a ton. Let it sink in. } Take 10 minutes and write all 7.5 steps in your story. They are: } Ordinary World } Inciting Incident } Act 1 Decision/Act 2 Plan } Midpoint } Low Point } Final Battle } New Ordinary World HOMEWORK (due Monday at NOON)
} You’re rocking your bad self. Give yourself a pat on the back. } Do this with a spirit of curiosity – even if you really know your story, let yourself play } Write 5 versions of your outline and post the best. } Use your cohorts for a sounding board – go so post away from today on. Indicate your final version by writing FINAL in your reply to the thread.
} Remember to post in the forums section for your homework.