Pep Talk

You have probably heard a novel referred to as a journey. Following this analogy, your plot becomes the vehicle that gets you from the beginning to the end of the journey, following the most exciting path that could be taken. You can't wait to get around the next corner just to see what might happen there. However, if you have a vehicle, you must also have something to power it. In the case of plot, the fuel comes from conflict.

"In fiction," writes Jack Bickham (The 38 Most common Fiction Writing Mistakes [And How to Avoid Them], Writer's Digest Books, 1992), "the best times for the writer--and reader--are when the story's main character is in the worst trouble . . .. Pour on all sorts of woes so your poor character is thoroughly miserable and in the deepest kind of trouble, and your story perks right up--along with your reader's interest."

It's important to understand that conflict and adversity are two different things. Adversity is something that befalls a person with little rhyme or reason. The receiver has little or no control over when or how the event occurs. Your story may start with an adverse situation of one type or another. Bad luck can also be used like seasoning to draw reader sympathy for a down-and-out character. However, you don't achieve the kind of story tension you want through adversity. Instead you must create struggles between story people who have opposing goals; this is conflict.

Why is conflict so crucial? Because it is dramatic. It's like a good sports game where there's the constant tension of who is going to overcome. Your lead should know who the opponent is and struggles against him/her in an effort to change the course of events. A fiction writer will spend a good deal of time plotting ways to set up more of these struggles. Keep in mind that we're not necessarily talking about literal hand-to-hand combat (though it can indeed come to that), but one person pitted against another in a battle of wits, morality, determination, or any other situation in which a person tries to win over another.

While your novel will be full of a variety of scenes depicting different minor conflicts that move the story forward, you should start out with a single overriding conflict that drives your entire book. Knowing your major story question will save you hours of writing material that is unnecessary.

Jeff Heisler suggests, "Write your book in two sentences or less…. That's what you have to write first. Why? Because the golden rule of writing is to know what you're writing when you write it…. Anything that you write or plot later must relate to those sentences or it needs to be cut--period." Heisler suggests reviewing the two-sentence summaries of movie listings in the TV Guide to give you an idea of what you want to end up with.

Randal Ingermanson is tougher yet, urging a one-sentence summary of your story. He says, "The sentence will serve you forever as a ten-second selling tool. This is the big picture…." He suggests fewer than 15 words, using no character names and tying the big picture to the character's personal struggle. "Writing a one-sentence description is an art form," he writes, and then suggests reading the one-line blurbs on the New York Times Best Seller list to get an idea of how to do it.

Sharpening your focus in this way will keep you from straying from your major conflict and wasting time writing material that later has to be cut away.

From your story premise, you can begin to stretch and think about the rest of your plot skeleton. The most common type of plot is a three-act linear plot. Act One is the beginning; Act Two is the middle; Act Three is the end. Robert Ray discusses how focusing on a few key scenes within these three acts can give your story the support it needs while you flex your creative writing muscles. (See The Weekend Novelist by Robert J. Ray, Dell Publishing.)

Act One spans the first quarter of the book. It opens with a key scene that hooks the reader and then goes on to introduce the characters and the story conflict, sets events in motion, and concludes with a turning point, or Plot Point One, as Ray defines it. This scene propels the protagonist--and the reader--into the meat of the story where even more trouble ensues.

Act Two will generally encompass the next two quarters of the book. Halfway through this section there will generally be another major turning point in the plot--the midpoint. Prior to this point it often appears that there is a resolution to the story problem in view, then the midpoint scene twists the plot again to produce a new level of tension. Act Two is capped off by what is sometimes referred to as The Blackest Moment. Ray refers to it as Plot Point Two. Thanks to the obstacle presented here, it appears our valiant hero may fail in his quest. The odds seem overwhelming, the outlook bleak.

Act Three contains three key scenes. The first key scene pushes the character toward a resolution. Ray terms it the decision scene. This is followed by a catharsis scene in which the protagonist makes a high-risk move to resolve the problem. The story is ended with what Ray calls the capping-off scene that when well crafted will create an image that sticks in the reader's mind. Often it will tie back to the opening scene of the book either directly or in a symbolic way.

I challenge you over the next few weeks to boil your story premise down to a one- or two-sentence blurb. The shorter the better. Then start playing (and I do mean playing, just like a toddler can spend hours changing and rearranging building blocks) with ideas for key scenes that support your premise. These will serve as landmarks while you write your first draft, helping you to keep going in the right direction to reach the story goal.

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