Just Put a Monkey In It

Scott recently suggested that I put a monkey in my story. This was actually much deserved revenge for some suggestions I’ve made to him in the past with regard to his art. Although he certainly doesn’t need my advice, now and then Scott will be working on a painting and something about it is bothering him. It’s usually something that he feels he’s too close to and can’t see so once in a while he’ll ask me what I think is going on with the painting. Most of the time, I suspect he’s bored and just making conversation, but I’m always flattered to be asked and will do my best to help. If I’m not seeing it either, I usually suggest he put a monkey in the painting.

This got me thinking about plotting. It got me thinking about where the inspiration for raising the stakes, or introducing subplots, or deciding what to have our characters do next comes from. Authors are all over the map on this. Stephen King, in On Writing says that he absolutely doesn’t believe in plotting. He believes that stories and novels are made up of narration, description and dialogue. In his process, the germ of the story comes from a premise or situation and he is like an archeologist, who must discover what the story is.

On the other end of the spectrum are the more regimented writers who feel they must outline and tightly plot in order to complete a good story. In fact, King cites the English mystery writer, Edgar Wallace, who actually invented and patented the Edgar Wallace Plot Wheel. Not sure what happens next? Spin the wheel and see what comes up! Perhaps a surprise visitor or a declaration of love or a murder or a long lost relative will appear.

I like the idea of discovering story and of letting inspiration come from the subconscious, but I also believe that sometimes the subconscious needs a kick in the pants to get moving. A plot wheel, a magic eight ball, a maniacal ranting solo brainstorming session (my personal favorite), a long walk, inducing a trance-like state or creating a long list of “what if” candidates can all prove useful under certain circumstances.

Ultimately, whether we’re establishing these things up front, or discovering them along the way, we all need to come up with plot points. I’m still muddling my way through and trying to discover my own process, so I’ve tried a number of these methods with varying success.

Of course, if all else fails, I can always add a monkey.

What process do you use to come up with plot points or ways to raise the stakes and heighten the conflict in your stories?

Breakthrough on a White Board

It’s astounding to me how often it’s simple, unexpected things that can help solve what appears to be a complicated problem. I was surprised and touched by the comments and suggestions I received in response to my last post about my writing dilemma and want to thank those of you who commented. I am very happy to say that all the insight helped me. In addition to the great advice I received, I found a practical tool to help me work through the plotting and organizational problems I was having.

As ridiculous as it sounds, a white board and dry erase markers broke the spell. I wanted to run through the major plot elements I’d originally established and review them in order to first, make sure that I had worked out a story worth telling and find a way to fix it if I hadn’t. I then wanted to figure out what the primary theme underlying it all was so that I could look at the characters I’d originally created, the settings in which I’d placed them and the details I’d included (or not) that would reinforce the theme. The next step would be to make sure every sentence I’d drafted so far served to either reveal something about a character or was advancing the action.

I was having a terrible time doing this on paper or on my computer, but when I started working it out on the white board, dry eraser in hand, I was able to quickly lay out the big pieces, rearrange them, remove some and add still others in a very loose way. The ability to quickly add and erase made everything so much more fluid as I worked through this. Perhaps it’s because I’m a bit of a perfectionist, but I had a much harder time doing this on paper or PC. Apparently, once I’ve written something using either of these tools, it is harder for me to see the big picture and harder for me to make immediate changes. Maybe my desire to fix typos and spelling or write things down neatly takes me out of the creative flow. Once I’d gotten a good start on the white board, the ideas were flying and I was able to start sketching it all out in a notebook in a more detailed, useful way.

With this simple change to the way I was working through my problems, I was able to make my storyline more interesting (I hope) and raise the stakes by adding more conflict and confrontation for my main character. I came up with a number of symbols and colors to represent my x versus y theme. I created new characters to support the additional pieces of the story I’d added and came up with character names that subtly support the theme. There will be many more changes to come, but I am finally anxious to go back to what I have and start rearranging, cutting and adding with the fresh insight into the characters, settings and other pieces of the story that I’ve gained. Now when I work on a scene that takes place in a room, I can consciously make decisions about the feel of the room, the weather outside, the furniture and the colors or even if it should be indoors at all. I can reexamine the physical appearance and dress of each character to determine whether or not they are supporting the story in the way they should. I’d previously done some of this instinctively to start out with, but I can now make much more significant improvement and progress.

I wish I could say I had a dream that gave me all the insight I needed, or something mystical happened that gave me a breakthrough, but it was just a simple change of medium.

Therese Fowler has answered 20 Questions on her process with today's post on her blog, Making it Up. As I suspected, Therese is very disciplined and efficient in her approach -- check it out. Have you had a breakthrough moment, due to something seemingly unrelated to the problem? Do you begin a story and keep on typing, letting the structure fall naturally into place? What other methods do you use to take the premise of a story through to plotting and creating characters? Do you write lengthy character sketches, knowing that very little of what you write about them will go into your novel? There is obviously no one right way to do this and I’m finding that each writer is nearly unique in his or her approach. I’ve heard that many writers have rituals and routines to put them into the zone. What methods and techniques work for you?