Tuesdays with Story

Writer’s Mail
June 19, 2014

“First, find out what your hero wants, then just follow him!” — Ray Bradbury

At this Tuesday’s meeting…
Cindi read from Chapter Twelve of North Road. Andy liked the scene but he had a question about what this part has to do with the overall plot of the story and suggested a series of short stories centered on the main character. Pat, Lisa and Jerry suggested getting to the serious stuff that happens later in the scene more quickly; the scene was set almost cinematically, but the dialogue needs to come sooner. Jerry had a problem with one character telling another to think something over when a decision has been made and there’s nothing to think about. Lisa liked this chapter because it was a little lighter than earlier ones.
Lisa shared a portion of Chapter Eighteen of The Tebow Family Secret. Millie liked the chapter. Pat had a couple questions about the type of amnesia one of the characters has and was looking to read some salting of her memories by her family. Pat also had a question about how one character reacts when he takes a drink of alcohol, considering his past alcoholism. Jerry wanted to know why one character won’t sell a picture when he’s offered a lot of money. Cindi was looking for more of a response from one character. Jerry had an issue with who suggests doing a story on another character.

Amber read from the end of Chapter Six of her as yet untitled urban fantasy novel. Lisa wondered if a character who has amnesia would recall the medical knowledge of how to survive an allergic reaction. Pat and Cyndi liked the voice. Andy P. wanted some pronunciation of the character’s new name. Funnily enough, NO ONE remembered Amber telling the group this is an urban fantasy – so won’t they be surprised when the main character turns into a bird in the next chapter.
Jerry read from his new novella, Rubbed Out. Pat liked the scene with the kid who steals gas and the rhumba of rattlesnakes. Amber hopes the kid has to work off his punishment under the main character at the gas station. No one had much to say, really. Guess everyone is liking it.

Who’s Up Next…J
une 24: Rebecca Rettenmund (chapter, Lookout), Jen Wilcher (scene, novel), Deb Kellerman (chapter, novel), and Jack Freiburger (???).
July 1: Amber Boudreau (chapters, Stone), Millie Mader (chapter 55, Life on Hold), Kashmira Sheth & Amit Trivedi (chapter 4, novel), Bob Kralapp (short story part 6, “Hole in the Wall”), Andy Pfeiffer (chapters, The Void), and Jerry Peterson (chapters, Rubbed Out).
July 15: Lisa McDougal (chapter, Tebow Family Secret), Andy Brown (chapter 4, Man Before the Fall), Amber Boudreau (chapters, Stone), Pat Edwards (???), John Schneller (chapter 3, Final Stronghold), and Judith McNeil (chapter 14, My Mother, Savior of Men).

This month’s editor…
Something you want included in Writers Mail this month? Andy Brown is the editor. Send your squibs to him at agbrown.films@gmail.com .
Ruth Imhoff takes on the job for July, and second-and-fourth is searching for an editor for August.

Great word…
From Word Spy Paul McFedries:
toebesity
Meaning: (noun) Excessive fat on one or more toes. Also: toe-besity. [toe + obesity]
Example Citations:
“According to Look magazine the 33-year-old, who tied the knot with Kanye West in a lavish Italian ceremony on Saturday, had ‘toebesity’ liposuction on her feet so she could ease them into her shoes pain-free. Toe lipo, also nicknamed ‘a Loub job’, is a procedure to remove a small bit of fat so your toes can fit better into pointy stilettos without pinching.”
– Bianca London, Did Kim Kardashian have a ‘Loub job’ before her wedding?, MailOnline, May 27, 2014
“Thanks to new medical-spa specialties described this week in The New York Times, women whose feet are too wide to fit into skinny pumps, or who suffer from the scourge of what is being called ‘toebesity,’ can simply get a foot facelift or toe tuck.”
– Renée Loth, The agony of the feet, The Boston Globe, May 3, 2014
Earliest Citation:
“After years of trekking the streets of New York in super-fashionable stilettos and boots, 25 year-old Brooklynite Zorana Richardson’s toes were looking bad. ‘One of them started getting really big,’ Richardson says…. Now, after having hammertoe surgery and toetucks on three toes, ‘I definitely don’t have the pain anymore, and I have regular feet.’
– Danica Lo, Small step – fighting ‘toe-besity,’ at $6,250 per foot, The New York Post, July 27, 2006
Notes:
The chuckle-inducing pun Loub job (where the “Loub” portion is a reference to shoe designer Christian Louboutin) can refer not only to a “toe tuck,” but also to its effective opposite: a collagen injection in the foot that adds “padding” to make wearing extremely high heels less painful. Loub job can also refer to a job taken solely to earn enough money to purchase Christian Louboutin shoes.

How real should we be…
More writing advice form novelist/blogger Nathan Bransford:
One of the things I struggled with the most as a young writer was trying to balance creating realistic characters with being a good storyteller.
Here’s what I mean. Let’s say I was writing a novel where there’s a strange but everyday fact of life for the characters in that world, like, instead of air everyone breathes tomato soup. (Bizarre, but yum.)
Since breathing tomato soup is so ordinary to the people in the novel and they can’t imagine a world in which they don’t breathe tomato soup, it would seem really unrealistic for them to sit around talking about breathing tomato soup. We don’t sit around talking about air and explain to each other how it came to be. So why would the characters explain it?
And it may seem awkward and contrary to the flow of the novel to just come out with the explanation explicitly.
Read the entire post at http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2014/06/its-better-to-be-good-storyteller-than.html

Building Powerful Plots…
By the grace of my day job, I was able to attend Write by the Lake at the UW Campus this past week, and thought I’d share a few major takeaways from my class: Building Powerful Plots with Angela Rydell, MFA. So as to avoid spending a couple hours transcribing all the notes and handouts, I’ll give a quick overview of one of the approaches to plotting that helped me most throughout the week.

Five Major Turning Points
The idea behind this technique is to create dynamic, exciting plots that are heavily based in your protagonist, challenging their weaknesses, and enabling their growth/progression.

Basically, the story begins with a Major Turning Point (1). This is the Inciting Incident – the event that changes everything and forces your protagonist to make a choice. As a result of the new situation created by the inciting incident, complications occur, including your protagonist making decisions, acclimating to the new surroundings and striving toward a goal. This is also the time when a protagonist will discover progressive complications and discover the greater obstacles that they’re up against.

The protagonist struggles through the new situation created by the i.i. until Major Turning Point 2 occurs. Here, a smaller crisis reveals new information that solidifies the protagonist’s desires/motivations into a specific goal. As a result, the protagonist makes more progress, but also deals with increasing complications that “pinch”, or push the protagonist toward a breaking point.
“Imagine a rubber band being stretched to the point of breaking apart.” – Dara Marks

That “pinch” propels events toward Major Turning Point 3 (The Midpoint). Here, a shift occurs (often an external event causing an inner change) that dawns truth on the protagonist. This “aha” moment reveals that the protagonist’s weakness is what’s holding them back, and may also reveal the story’s theme to the reader. As a result, things may look up momentarily, but complications will soon make things worse than ever. “Anything that goes up must come down, and your protagonist must fall from grace soon enough…” -Rydell

Major Turning Point 4: The Black Moment. A major setback occurs, causing the protagonist’s goal to look hopeless. This loss must threaten to bring about their undoing – even tempt them to take immoral action. Here is where you must make your hero suffer the most. But remember, despite their loss, your protagonist’s Midpoint revelation can’t be taken away. In the aftermath, your protagonist picks himself up – often alone – and pushes events toward the climax.

Things continue to fall apart externally until… Major Turning Point 5 (The Climax), the big moment of triumph or failure. This is the moment where your protagonist must stand and fight. Their inner struggle may be resolved before this moment (to bring them into it) or as a result of this moment. And then falling action occurs and the story winds down. So, there you have it.

Other quick items of interest included:
• Donald Maass’s four essential elements of a breakout premise:
– Plausibility
– Inherent Conflict
– Originality
– Gut Emotional Appeal

• Protagonists’ Levels (Often Progression) of Desire
1. Survive
2. Take Revenge
3. Win the Battle
4. Achieve Something
5. Explore a World
6. Catch a Criminal
7. Fine the Truth
8. Gain Love
9. Bring Justice & Freedom
10. Save the Republic
11. Save the World

• Plot Layers and Subplots must do at least one of the following:
– Contradict the main plot’s theme
– Vary the main plot’s theme
– Complicate the protagonist’s goal