Part I
For many writers, character first means developing the character and then using her personality, wants, needs, and flaws to dictate the events of the story. Unfortunately, many writers find this slow or cumbersome, or they get “lost” in the character development and never quite get to the plot part. I’m here to tell you that you don’t have to have extensive character questionnaires filled out, you don’t have to know every intimate detail of your character, in order to plot. What you need is flexibility, a general understanding of the psychology behind flaws and motives, and how people behave under pressure. That doesn’t mean you need a degree in psychology. If you’re a long-standing people watcher and have an intuitive understanding of these things, you have most of what you need. But if you don’t have a systematic way to use those elements, you will be less likely to create a page-turning plot.
Note
I’ve explained the steps of a system in this two-part article. You need some elements of each of the steps I’ve listed below, but you don’t need to follow the same order I list here and, depending upon your story, you may not need every aspect of a particular step. Do what works for you. But at least consider including all these elements. Particularly if thus far your stories haven’t been as successful as you’d like.
What You Need to Understand Before You Start
There are many arguments online about “pantsers” versus “planners.” That is unnecessary. You can use either of these methods, or bits of both. The best method of working that helps you create a page-turning story is to use whatever you are comfortable using. If you don’t know what works for you, it’s okay to start with one method and change it if you need to. This isn’t homework you need to get an A on.
You also need to understand that unless you are the writer-type who has internalized how to write a story so deeply and thoroughly that you can write a one-draft wonder, your first draft will need a lot of refinement before you’re done.
Understanding those two things will make your writer’s life much more pleasant that it might be otherwise.
The Methodology
I use a kind of Russian nesting doll method for developing my story (thank you BBA for reminding me of the metaphor). Most of you have seen these on the internet, but in case you haven’t, here’s a picture.
For the sake of keeping the length of this post manageable for you and for me, let’s go with a nesting doll set that has only three dolls: small, medium, and large.
I go through a phase where I develop the absolute minimum information I need (the smallest doll), then through a phase where I need more information to direct the story (the medium doll), then the maximum amount of planning and information to finish the story.
Clear as mud? Let me clear that up with more information and some examples.
What’s Your Story About?
Understand what story you want to tell. Is it purely for entertainment? Maybe it’s a story about a life lesson you’ve learned? It could be an emotion or a question you want to explore? These elements can form the underpinnings of a great story, but you will also need an interesting character and plot.
For example: Let’s say I want to tell a story about the discovery of and learning to use one’s own agency.
That’s the minimum I need to develop my story. You might need to have “the sentence” or a theme statement (the middle doll). Or perhaps you need more specifics (the largest doll) so you’ll decide this will be a three-act story, with a mid-story reversal where she has all the agency and has the realization that she’s using it to control others so she spends the rest of the story trying to learn how to use agency without manipulating others. If this doesn’t work for you as a starting point, find your story’s backbone in one of the following steps.
Who is Your Story About?
Keeping the story element “about” in mind, what type of person/protagonist would not have agency? Alternatively, what antagonist would oppose the protagonist?
The Small Doll
The minimum might be a type of person, maybe a gender, and a name.
The Medium Doll
This version would be more detailed. You’d likely decide on the protagonist’s name, her goal (want), a major flaw, maybe the lie or misbelief she has that will hold her back (create an obstacle or two), and what she needs to heal or grow to her next level.
The Largest Doll
The largest version would be even more detailed. You might fill out a complete character profile worksheet so you’d know her favorite colors, her least favorite foods and personality types, her worldview, etc.
None of these levels of detail is better than any of the others. No matter which one you start with, you will most likely tweak it during each draft you write.
I typically use the small doll approach for my antagonist at first.
Example:
The protagonist would most likely be a person who has lived a life full of rules and expectations. Someone who has never understood she has agency (note: in my case, the character is a human female. Your character, your choice of gender, species, and experiences).
The antagonist would be someone with authority in my protagonist’s life. It could be a parent, a teacher, a religious leader, or just about anyone who has the authority to decide things for my protagonist.
Again, you can develop the amount of detail you need to write the first draft of your story.
What World Do They Live In?
The smallest doll would be a general description like, an alternate America with an authoritarian government.
The medium doll would go a little deeper. Perhaps that would be a 1960s version of East Coast America that hasn’t developed real-life technology and society because the authoritarian government came into power before (in real life) America got involved in WWII. So the society and technology would look more like 1930s America.
The large doll would go into even more detail. Perhaps you’d fill out a “world of” worksheet detailing clothing styles, transportation available, and rules of the government.
Again, don’t limit your choices to be the same as I make in my example.
What is at Stake?
What will losing cost the protagonist? What will losing cost the antagonist?
The small doll version of this can be very short, as in: the character (antagonist or protagonist) will die.
The medium version is more involved. I typically write stories of growth for my characters and the society I’ve constructed, so my protagonist will pay a personal price that affects her larger society. So for my example, the protagonist could lose her life and subject her society to even more restrictions and less agency. The antagonist could lose her life, and her death could cause the imprisonment or death of all her followers.
Where Does the Story Start?
Many writing books and instructors will say that the story starts right before the inciting incident. Not terribly helpful, is it? But there is a more helpful way to look for where the story starts. Look at the ending.
Don’t know what the ending is until you get there? That’s okay. I don’t know exactly how events will unfold to reveal the end of the story until I write it. But I know how I want the ending to feel. There’s an emotional arc I want the protagonist to experience; I hinted at it in my example of “What’s the story about.” To refresh your memory, my example was “I want to tell a story about the discovery of and learning to use one’s own agency.” The simple answer is it starts with a character without agency, who ends up able to make her own decisions and act upon them.
Starting the story with a character unable to make her own decisions would be an okay start. However, to help make her arc feel more urgent and the ending more earned,
Start at the End.
In the example story, I want her to have enough self-efficacy at the end of the story that she can make and act on a major decision to face and “battle” the antagonist. This decision will affect not only her life but the lives of people she cares about. One of the strongest ways to make the reader feel the protagonist earned her way is by showing the mirror image of the end at the beginning.
If the protagonist faces the antagonist and wins after following one step of growth after another, the ending feels predictable. To make that ending feel earned, you must show the protagonist unable to face the antagonist at the beginning, followed by the struggle and failure to face/beat the antagonist throughout the book until the protagonist figures something out (usually about herself).
Next Steps
It’s almost as easy as that. Maybe I should say it can be as easy as that. Some writers can use those bare bones to start writing their first drafts. If you aren’t one, rest assured that there are more steps you can take to turn that predictable journey up the steps into a journey of one step forward and two steps back that keeps your readers rooting for your protagonist page after page.
What I’ve discussed above are the bones of the skeleton or the support beams I develop in the early stages of creating a story. What comes next layers on the “muscle” that ensures each step of the story will engage the reader enough to turn one more page. More on that in one month.
Are you a pantser or planner? Do you think this method might be helpful to you?
Resources
Lynette’s recommended books for writers.
Image Credits
Featured image by Margarita Kochneva from Pixabay
Second image by Renee Gaudet from Pixabay