Plot and Narrative

Developing a Book’s Plot and Narrative:

From Dissection to Inspiration

George Galdorisi

La Jolla Writer’s ConferenceOctober 27-29, 2017

Workshop



“This workshop will help attendees focus their original book ideaand put that idea “on trial for its life.” We’ll start with the basics,focusing on protagonists and antagonists and the most criticaltrifecta for any story: What do these guys want, why do theywant it, and what’s keeping them from getting it? We’ll thenmove on to the way to shape a story, using character, conflict,complications, climax and conclusion, and then use the FreytagPyramid to examine how action drives a story from beginning toend. Attendees will be provided with online access to allworkshop material.”

A Few Preliminaries….

• Three promises:

– This will be a fast-paced 110 minutes

– We’ll learn something…and we’ll have fun

– You’ll have access to these slides…take notes…or not….

• Three assumptions:

– You all are interested in nurturing your story idea

– You would like to turn your idea into a novel or….

– You didn’t wake up last Tuesday morning with this notion

• And a word about Power Point….

….by way of background….

Let’s Talk About Writing….

….and isn’t this the oldest profession?

“If you decide to become a professional writer, youmust, broadly speaking, decide whether you wish towrite for fame, for pleasure, or for money.”

Ian FlemingHow to Write a Thriller

Did You Bring Your Homework?



Dissection 101 - Quickly

• Do what most successful novelists do:

– Study those who have been successful

– Find the kind of books you want to write

– Break these books down and analyze them

– Spend time understanding what worked for you

– Spend time understanding what didn’t work for you

• You should have a posse of novelists to emulate

• That said, you must bring your own uniqueness

Dissection 101 - Quickly

• You’ll ultimately discover that “your” idea has been done before

• That is good news, it means your kind of story appeals to readers

• Now, deep dive into your posse’s novels and do a story breakdown, focusing on the narrative

• Next, deep dive into your posse’s novels and do a scene breakdown, focusing on purpose

• Pay particular attention on how everything in your posse’s novels moves the story forward

….now that you all are budding forensic pathologists, let’s move on to inspiration

Developing a Book’s Plot and Narrative: From Dissection to Inspiration

• The coolest thing about writing!

• Start with your original idea

• There must be a story, plot, or mystery

• You must have a protagonist and an antagonist

• Something must happen to make you turn pages

• What happens must matter

• Most readers like a satisfying resolution

“For me, I gotta write, and it’s the adventure of it that’shooked me. As the writer, I can do it all. I get to be theNational Security Advisor who recommends the actionto the President who must commit the forces. I’m thesenior officer who sends his men into action and whofeels the pain if they don’t make it back. I’m the enemyand the defender; logistician and staff planner. Butmost of all, I’m a young man again, that freshlieutenant who must lead his men into battle.”

Dick Couch“So you Want to be a Writer”









Only You Are the Steward of Your Original Idea

• It is your idea and your idea alone

• You have to nurture it, don’t share it yet

• It is the foundation of your book

• Above all else, it is the spark of inspiration for you

• Don’t do too much, let it germinate

• Come up with another idea, is the first still the best?

Can You State Your Idea In One Sentence?

• If you can’t do this, start over and find a new one

• This one sentence ignites your creative focus

• It is often the core of the pitch to sell your book

• Remembering just one sentence keeps you focused

Your Original Idea in One Sentence

The subject of the sentence will describe (1) animperfect but passionate and active protagonist. Theverb will depict (2) the battle. And the direct object willdescribe (3) an insurmountable antagonist who tries tostop the protagonist from reaching (4) a physical goalon account of (5) the stakes, if the goal is not reached.









Is It Just a Story –Or Something More?

• The king died and then the queen died.

– A story

• The king died and then the queen died of grief.

– A plot

• The queen died, and no one knew why, until it was discovered that it was through grief at the death of the king.

– A mystery

There must be a story, plot, or mystery:The Classic Plot

• The writer introduces a hero or heroine who has just been –or is about to be – plunged into terrible trouble

• The hero or heroine attempts to solve his or her problem but only slips deeper into trouble

• As they try to climb out of the hole they’re in, complications arise, each more terrible than the one before, until the situation could not become more hopeless, then one final unthinkable complication arises and makes matters worse.

• At last, deeply affected and changed by his awful experiences and intolerable circumstances, the hero learns something about himself and the human condition. He then understands what he must do to get out of the dangerous situation in which he has wound up. He takes the necessary actions and either succeeds or fails, succeeding more often than not.









You Must Have a Protagonist and An Antagonist

• The Protagonist must have a goal

• The Protagonist must have a conflict

• The Antagonist must have a goal

• The Antagonist must have a conflict:

– You must give your antagonist believable motivation

– The reader must understand the antagonist’s goal

– Your antagonist must have a good plan

– The stronger the antagonist, the stronger the protagonist

• Their conflict lock makes the story move forward









Something Must Happen To Make You Turn Pages

• Good stories typically start with an inciting action

• The protagonist usually gets introduced early

• The protagonist has to solve a problem

• The story involves a protagonist solving the problem

• The antagonist is hell-bent to stop the protagonist









What Happens Must Matter

• Character

• Conflict

• Complications

• Climax

• Conclusion









Most Readers Like a Satisfying Resolution

• The protagonist solves the problem or crisis

• The protagonist must change along the way (1.0-2.0)

• You don’t have to kill the antagonist

• But there must be a reason the antagonist loses

Now That We Know All This Let’s Write Your Novel

Plot is ImportantBut That’s Not All

Let’s talk about three of the most important ingredients in writing a

successful novel…

Characterization Plotting

ActionYou must do

all three well!

Plotting

“There are only two plots: The hero takes a journey anda stranger comes to town.”

Timothy Spurgin“The Art of Reading”The Great Courses

The Classic Plot

• The writer introduces a hero or heroine who has just been –or is about to be – plunged into terrible trouble

• The hero or heroine attempts to solve his or her problem but only slips deeper into trouble

• As they try to climb out of the hole they’re in, complications arise, each more terrible than the one before, until the situation could not become more hopeless, then one final unthinkable complication arises and makes matters worse.

• At last, deeply affected and changed by his awful experiences and intolerable circumstances, the hero learns something about himself and the human condition. He then understands what he must do to get out of the dangerous situation in which he has wound up. He takes the necessary actions and either succeeds or fails, succeeding more often than not.

“You can distill any drama – a Greek tragedy, aShakespearian play, a modern novel, a TV drama orcomedy, whatever – into a simple equation: ‘What dothese guys want, why do they want it, and what’skeeping them from getting it?’”

Bill BleichWriting advice

Plots

• Create a compelling plot

• Write a grabber opening

• Write a successful ending

• Create a middle that keeps the reader involved

James Hall – Hit Lit

• Gone with the Wind• Peyton Place• To Kill a Mockingbird• Valley of the Dolls• The Godfather• The Exorcist• Jaws• The Dead Zone• The Hunt for Red October• The Firm• The Bridges of Madison County• The Da Vinci Code

Let’s take a deep-dive into one well-known way to design or deconstruct a plot….

TheFreytagPyramid

Now Let’s Get to Work!

A Movie Log Line

The subject of the sentence will describe (1) animperfect but passionate and active protagonist. Theverb will depict (2) the battle. And the direct object willdescribe (3) an insurmountable antagonist who tries tostop the protagonist from reaching (4) a physical goalon account of (5) the stakes, if the goal is not reached.

What is Your Story?

• Take five minutes to do a “log line” for your story

• Partner up! Try your log line on your partner

• Rewrite your log line based on that feedback

• “Hold that thought” – and we’ll see what’s next

Turning Your Log Line Into a Narrative

Let’s Use This to Dissect a Book We All Are Familiar With

• Pride and Prejudice

• Ulysses

• War and Peace

• Anna Karenina

• Don Quixote

• Little Women

• The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of OzExposition

The exposition stage of the story sets the scene and introducesthe characters. In The Wizard of Oz, the exposition is everythingthat happens from the beginning of the story to the tornado. Wemeet all the major characters. Dorothy runs away with Toto andmeets Professor Marvel; and on her way back to the farm,Dorothy is overtaken by the storm.

The Wizard of OzInciting Incident

Next comes the inciting action, which is the event thatintroduces conflict into the story. This is a bit tricky in The Wizardof Oz, because there are two elements in the story that might becalled the conflict:

• One is the conflict between Dorothy and Miss Gulch, because MissGulch wants Dorothy’s dog put to sleep. This is what causes Dorothy torun away from home, leading to the blow to the head she receivesduring the tornado. In this sense, we might consider Miss Gulch’sthreat the inciting moment.

• But this conflict becomes more complicated when the tornadotransports Dorothy to the Land of Oz. There, Dorothy’s house lands onthe Wicked Witch of the East and kills her, and the Wicked Witch ofthe West threatens to kill Dorothy in revenge.

The Wizard of OzRising Action

The rising action is where the plot becomes more complicatedand exciting, building tension. This includes Dorothy’s departurefrom Munchkinland, her meetings with the Scarecrow, the TinMan and the Cowardly Lion, her arrival in Emerald City; heraudience with the Wizard, and her capture by the witch:

• During this part of the story, small obstacles are thrown in the path ofDorothy and her companions, and the two conflicts mentioned duringthe inciting incident are reemphasized.

• The two conflicts are then explicitly linked when the Wizard tellsDorothy he’ll help her get back to Kansas if she brings him the witch’sbroom.

• Dorothy and her companions then face their most difficult challenge,with Dorothy getting carried away by the flying monkeys and hercompanions breaking into the witch’s castle to rescue her.

The Wizard of OzClimax

The climax is the most dramatic and exciting event in the story.In The Wizard of Oz, the climax comes when Dorothy and herfriends are trapped in the witch’s castle, and Dorothy kills thewitch by dousing her with a bucket of water. At that moment,much of the story’s tension is released because at least one ofthe conflicts, the one between Dorothy and the witch, is ended,and the plot begins its descent down the other side of thepyramid.

The Wizard of OzFalling Action

The next element is the falling action, which is made up ofevents that result directly from the moment of climax. Theelement after that is called the resolution, where the character’sconflict is resolved:

• After Dorothy has killed the witch, she take the broomstick back to theWizard. He solves the problems of Dorothy’s three companions, andagrees to take Dorothy back to Kansas himself.

• This is the falling action: it shows the results of the death of the witch,but it doesn’t resolve Dorothy’s second conflict, the fact that shewants to go home to Kansas.

The Wizard of OzResolution

The resolution comes when the Wizard accidentally takes off inhis balloon without Dorothy, and Dorothy learns from Glinda theGood Witch that she could have taken herself back to Kansas atany time just by using the ruby slippers. At this point, Dorothy’sconflict is finally resolved. The threat from the witch isliquidated, and she realizes that she always had the power to gohome.

The Wizard of OzDénouement

The denouement is the ending of the story, when order isrestored. At this point, we are often shown the characters onemore time so we can see what happened to them. In The Wizardof Oz it’s the final scene in Dorothy’s bedroom, where she isreunited with Aunt Em and Uncle Henry and the now-familiarfarmhands:

• In some stories the denouement simply shows that order has beenrestored, and the world is now back to the way it was. But this isn’tusually the case, and it’s certainly not the case in The Wizard of Oz.

• Dorothy is back home, but everything is not back to the way it wasbefore she went to Oz. Dorothy’s understanding of herself and herplace in the world have profoundly changed.

Characterization





Important Qualities for Heroes, Heroines and Strangers

• Virtue

• Competence

• Courage

• Likeability

• Imperfections

• Change:

– Layers

– Arcs

Character Motivations

• Love

• Curiosity

• Self-preservation

• Greed

• Self-discovery

• Duty

• Revenge

Character Traits

• Physical appearance• Movement and gestures• Past life• Religion• Sexuality• Vocation• Skills and talents• Fears• Dreams• Pleasures • Plans for the future• Sense of humor• Politics• Voice and speech

Presenting Character Traits Thoughtfully

• How many major and minor characters to have

• All major characters must have a biography

• Develop a “job description” for each character

• You will know what your characters will do

• You are writing a novel – not a movie script– You have to get your characters from Point A to Point B

– Your characters are not dead when they’re off the page

• What is each character doing?– On stage

– Off stage

Take a female character who is on her way to her high school reunion. She’s 50, attractive, divorced, and has had no contact with her graduating class since she left Iowa for Berkley in 1985. There was a guy she jilted when she went off to school. Develop her.

• Physical: height, weight, hair color, best feature, worst feature, etc.

• Occupation: attorney, doctor, college professor, executive, runs a dot.com startup, etc.

• Personal: strengths, weaknesses, phobias, attitude toward men, attitude toward all others, etc.

• Family: siblings, relationship with mom/dad, rivalries• Relationships: good/bad/difficult, marriage(s), children?

James Hall – Hit Lit

• Gone with the Wind• Peyton Place• To Kill a Mockingbird• Valley of the Dolls• The Godfather• The Exorcist• Jaws• The Dead Zone• The Hunt for Red October• The Firm• The Bridges of Madison County• The Da Vinci Code

Let’s look at three examples

New York Times, Publisher’s Weekly & USA Today Best-

Seller!

Let’s color in one character, Anne Sullivan, Op-Center’s

Deputy Director

“Anne Sullivan was a retired General ServicesAdministration super grade who had made a career inWashington. She knew all about the government,including government contracting, hiring, firing, andfunding, and how to sidestep the issues. These werethings Williams never had to deal with, even during hismultiple tours in Washington.”

“Unlike Williams, Sullivan came from money. Her fatherhad fashioned a successful and lucrative career infinance with Bain Capital Ventures. Between that familymoney and her GSA retirement, she was lookingforward to a comfortable life. She enjoyed the D.C.social and cultural scene and traveled often, primarilyto Europe and especially to Ireland. That plan wasinterrupted when Williams recruited her—charmedher, really, she readily admitted—to be his deputy.”

New York Times, Publisher’s Weekly & USA Today Best-

Seller!

Let’s color in one character, Kate Bigelow, Commanding

Officer, USS Milwaukee (LCS-5) Freedom-Class Littoral

Combat Ship

“Kate Bigelow was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. She’dgone to the Academy for two reasons: to play lacrosse and tosing. Coming out of Montgomery Blair Prep in Silver Spring,Maryland, her two passions had been playing lacrosse andsinging in her school glee club and church choir. She was an all-state midfielder and also had a strong voice. Her grades weregood if not outstanding, but the Academy women’s lacrossecoach saw her play and liked what she saw. Lacrosse was a roughsport, even the woman’s game, and Kate Bigelow, while owning atechnically sound game, was not above flattening an opposingplayer with a legal hit. She started for three years on the lacrosseteam, beating Army two of those three years, and had sung inthe Catholic Choir and the Naval Academy Glee Club.”

“Kate had graduated in the upper half of the bottom third of theClass of 2002. She’d never really considered a full career in theNavy as a seagoing officer, two things intervened that kept herfrom leaving the service. She found she liked U.S. Navy sailorsand she had a knack for leading them. Secondly, she foundcommand intoxicating. There was nothing like it on the outside,so she stayed in the Navy. She had previously commanded anMCM ship like Defender that now followed them out of Sasebo.”

New this year from Braveship Books

Let’s color in one character, Lieutenant Laura Peters,

Intelligence Officer, U.S. Southern Command

For Laura Peters, it was an opportunity for professional growththat might not come her way again. It was not surprising sheloved what she was doing. The daughter and only child of aNavy chief petty officer, she had been the apple of her father'seye. Master Chief Donald Peters had risen through the ranks asfar as he could, but he always wanted to be an officer. Thatgoal, unfortunately, had eluded him. When it was clear hismarriage would produce no sons, he regaled Laura with theopportunities that beckoned in the Navy. The master chiefknew enough about how the Navy worked and what it lookedfor in its officers—and particularly its need to recruit morewomen officers—that he groomed his daughter throughouthigh school to make her a shoe-in for winning a Navy ROTCscholarship.

She had thrived at the University of Virginia, earning topgrades, and lettering in cross-country, squash, and tennis.Sensing that the Navy was still not enlightened enough to fullyaccept women as equal partners commanding ships andaircraft squadrons, she opted for the intelligence field upongraduation, correctly surmising that it would provide a morelevel professional playing field and afford her the opportunityto prove herself and advance through the ranks. In her sevenyears since graduation she had sought out only the toughestassignments, usually registering firsts, breaking ground wherefemale officers had not gone before.

Here’s a better example

When he finished packing, he walked out onto the third-floor porch of the barracks brushing the dust from his hands, a very neat and deceptively slim young man in the summer khakis that were still early morning fresh.

James Jones(From Here to Eternity, opening sentence)

"Jones packs a hell of a lot into that first line. He tells you it's summer, he tells you it's morning, he tells you you're on an Army post with a soldier who's obviously leaving for someplace, and he gives you a thumbnail description of his hero. That's a good opening line."

Ed McBain in Killer's Payoff

…plot?...characterization?...which is more important?

Plot or Characterization

• You have to have plot to make the reader turn pages

• People are the story and the whole story

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• Plot has the entertainment value to pull the reader along

• The characters are the vehicle, the tools through which you tell your story

• Readers want you to tell them a story

• Dialogue brings your characters to life!

Action

“I do not over-intellectualize the production process. Itry to keep it simple: Tell the damned story.”

Tom Clancy

What About Action?

• Action evolves naturally from the plot

• There is no “formula” for having action in your novel

• As Clancy said, don’t overthink the action

• That said, here are some things to consider:

– Different kinds of novels lend themselves to more or less

– Write all the action you can – then consider Goldilocks

– If riveting, hold-your-breath action is anywhere – up front

– Balance scene and summary to bound action scenes









Resources• E.E. Forster Aspects of the Novel

• Francine Prose Reading Like a Writer

• Richard Curtis How To Be Your Own Literary Agent

• James Hall Hit Lit

• Dr. Linda Seger– The Art of Adaptation

– Advanced Screenwriting

• Robert Masello– Robert’s Rules of Writing

– Writer Tells All

• The Great Courses, especially, Jane Friedman How to Publish Your Book

A Word About Surveys:Comments Typically Come in Three Types

• You rocked my world and my life is now changed forever for the better – I’m a completely new person

• I’d rather have a root canal than have to sit through this again – and I think you should pay for it

• I got something (a lot, a little) out of this talk, but if the instructor does this next year, he should:– Do more of….

– Do less of….

– Go faster….

– Go slower….

– ????

Slides and Resources Posted:http://www.georgegaldorisi.com/

For 2017 La Jolla Writer’s Conference Attendees Contact me via this website for:

Treatment and Narrative Outline for Out of the AshesTreatment and Narrative Outline for Into the Fire

And if you’d like to receive my bi-weekly “Writing Tips”

Backups

But That’s Not All!(Mainstream and Genre)

• High Concept (Think in movie terms)

– The Coronado Conspiracy

– For Duty and Honor

• Theme

– The Coronado Conspiracy

– For Duty and Honor

Education

Plot and Narrative