Stage of revision 1 Is the overall structure sound?

Image by PIRO4D from Pixabay

This really is the first thing to look at – after perhaps getting rid of a few typos which may be distracting. This has to be right.

I find it useful at this point to recheck if I have got all of the elements I need in the story and are they well balanced:

·         hook,

·         inciting incident,

·         increasing complexities (three usually for a short story,  more for a novel)

·         crisis

·         climax

·         resolution 

In fact, I actually use this template to plan my stories but often that clear structure can get lost in all of the writing. We all find, don’t we, that characters can take on minds of their own, that we ourselves can so enjoy writing certain scenes that we hang on to them a bit too long and that we refuse to kill our darlings? We can also get bogged down in sub-plot. 

Sometimes, even when all of the ingredients are firmly there, it seems that something is lacking.  At that point it may be time to look at some other story theory.      

I’ve talked elsewhere about story theory on this blog – see the main post here.  Could one of those be applied to the text? 

Readers almost always expect the template and can be disappointed if it is not there. Is it our job perhaps to skew it a little so that we might take them by surprise?  

Literary fiction still has this there though it may be very subtle. In popular fiction and literary fiction it is more in your face. Often one more nasty thing happens just before the story resolves.

It really is worth getting this right. No matter how well you complete the other edits if the overall structure isn’t sound, the story will fail and probably not get published.  

Story Theory

I work with story theory a lot. I’m a planner and I establish the spine of the story before I start writing. I instil ideas about how stories work in my students on two of the modules I teach – Intro to Children’s Literature and Writing Novels for Young Adults. I also use it as an editing tool.  If a story isn’t working what’s missing? What isn’t strong enough? 

Many writers say that their stories come from the conflicts between characters. This is where I start anyway. I establish four basic characters: the hero, the friend, the mentor and the enemy. Only the hero has to be a sentient being. The enemy, for example, could be a set of circumstances. The mentor might be a computer programme. I put these elements together and see what happens. I can then get the two line description of my story: Cinders’ life is transformed when she meets the prince, they fall in love and he marries her.

I then flesh it out, along the lines of Robert McKee’s Story:

1.                  hook

2.                  3 or more incidents

3.                  crisis

climax (this is the gap between the crisis and the resolution) 

4.                  resolution

5.                  stasis

I recommend reading the whole book and then going back and reading Chapter 14. 

I’m also quite keen on three other story theories – those of Joseph Campbell, Vladimir Propp and Christopher Vogler. Vogler has in effect adapted Campbell’s ideas for the film industry. Vogler says that it works better if it is slightly skewed.  

Andrew Melrose brings us the idea of plot pyramids and tells us of the relationship between plot and sub-plot.  I’ve refined that even more and suggested that sub-plots are not separate plots but part of the main plot. All plots resolve at the same moment.  Melrose talks of an “Aha moment”.  The prince tries the shoe on Cinders’ foot. Will it fit?  

Christopher Booker tells us that there are only seven stories:

• Overcoming the Monster
• Rags to Riches
• The Quest
• Voyage and Return
• Comedy
• Tragedy
• Rebirth

.                        

I find it useful to decide which mine is and look at that particular shape. Do I have it there? Booker also offers us an overarching shape:

• Initial phase
• Opening out
• Severe – constriction
• Dark power dominant
• Reversal and liberation

  (Note that this is in fact very similar to McKee’s story theory and to what I call the Canpbell, Propp, Vogler amalgamated theory)      

Then we have more from the film industry:

• The three act structure
• Beat sheets

Even “pansters” – those who don’t plan in advance – might find all this useful as an editing tool.

I recently attend a SCBWI NW meeting and we worked with Vogler’s theory. Even though I’ve worked with this material for years, I had a few new ideas. 

I’ve frequently noticed as an editor and as an academic who marks hundreds of scripts that stories often fail between the crisis point and resolution. We sometimes get melodrama, a damp squib or a deus ex machina.  

Suddenly, though, the other week I saw it. The Ordeal in Vogler’s theory is our crisis point. He then gives us several extra steps to take before the story resolves. And didn’t I then go and see all of this in the BBC’s production of The Worst Witch?

My Intro to Children’s Literature students will be submitting their second assignment soon. They’ll either be producing a story or analysing one critically. Later today I’ll be working on a spread sheet for them that aligns all of these theories. I’ll also make to available to my followers here. Watch this space.   

Meanwhile, recommended reading:                       

Fibbin’ Archie

You’ll only have to look at the cover and read the title out loud to get some idea of what this story is about. It is a bit of a pun, however. Archie is a lad who tells a few fibs and there are a few uncomfortable circumstances as a result.  He is also obsessed with numbers – including, of course, the Fibonacci series.

Mort than this, however, the whole book is a bit of an experiment. It’s a sort of “writing by numbers”. I’m convinced that the Golden Segment exists just as much in literature as it does in art. This was an attempt to uncover it. I’m not sure I’ve quite found it yet. It’s possibly there right under our noses in the Three Act Structure and it’s possible that those experts on story theory, Christopher Booker, Joseph Campbell, Robert McKee, VladimirPropp and Christopher Vogler have identified it in all but name. Certainly, though, this made me write in an entirely different way – a way that was no more nor no less rewarding than any other.  Just different. An introduction and a postscript give more details.

It’s a story set in West Bromwich, the town where I grew up. I’ve become incredibly fond of Archie – maybe because he’s a teenager very similar to the one I used to be, perhaps because he comes from my home town or it might just be because he is one of my newest characters and we always like our latest creations the best as we strive to improve all the time.

I’m keen to get people’s reactions. If you’d like a free review copy, then contact me on g dot james 1 at salford dot ac dot uk.     

Heath warning: it’s a bit rude in places and there is some strong language. 

Writing Novels for Young People

I really enjoyed my session yesterday with this group. They are a Level 6 (second year) group of very motivated students. We are in our second week. Last week’s task was to create two characters, one of them the main character of the proposed novel and one of them the friend, the mentor or the enemy. They have to really know their characters well – physically, intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and they must also know the motivation that this character has in the story they have created. I was pleased that although not all that many students had written their scene, they had given considerable thought to the characters they had created. There was also some discussion about the characters needing to be rounded. Rounded and whole.
We then looked at several story theories. The first thing they need to do is put their story into a sentence – two lines maximum. Then they need to give their story a shape. The Robert McKee structure is a good starter: inciting incident, growing complexities, crisis, climax, reversal resolution (epilogue). Then they can look at other complexities- Freytag’s or Melrose’s, or my own plot pyramid. There are also the various hero’s journey theories Joseph Campbell, Vladimir Propp and Christopher Vogler. Add in also a handful of Jungian archetypes.
We discussed the character and the plot shapes in their set books.
They’ve been sent away to write their opening scene and work out their plot. I have great hopes for next week.

Creating Stories

I worked yesterday with a school set in the Northamptonshire countryside. A beautiful little village school which has just had a new play area built for the children – all artificial grass and soft tarmac. All the same child-friendly material. The teachers sit in a conservatory which overlooks the play area at break-times. I was lucky again: the secretary had been there exactly seven years. There was cake and chocolates.

The Headteacher, about my age, was being very brave. She had put two classes together for the day. It was noisy and cramped, but the ideas just flew around. The children were going to spend all day on stories, the Head explained. So, I brought story theory into my talk about “The Lombardy Grotto”. We looked at four archetypal characters: the protagonist, the friend, the enemy and the mentor. We also looked at story structure: inciting incident, growing complications – oops! oh dear, oh, no, crisis, almost resolution, rug pulling, and resolution. I also did a little of “writing with the senses” and related this to Jayne’ experience of chocolate. When I left, each child had two sides of A4 which they could us as a basis for a story.

There was a lovely looking pub over the road. It did serve food. But I didn’t think it would look so good if I went straight there from the school. I drove to the next one, also nice, but not quite so charming. And I sat and watched the characters in the bar, thinking of my own next story.

Workshop at Padgate High School, Warrington

I did enjoy this yesterday. This was part of the Masterclass series we offer from the University of Salford. I did a two hour gig with Year 13. I started off with a couple of warm-up sessions. The first was the “Angels / Gargoyles” exercise. This gets the students using language in perhaps a surprising way. They then moved on to do their own “opposite” word storm. Next was a mind-map of words and phrases about themselves, of which they then had to replace any one containing an ‘e’ with words or phrases without ‘e’. This gets rid of the clichés and stretches the imagination.
We then moved on to three ways of getting in to a story:
· The Stephen King method – take a scene and go from there. We examined that scene with our senses. This always leads to good writing in my opinion.
· Story theory – inciting incident, ratchet, crisis, climax, resolution – hints of golden segment
· Characters – hero, friend, enemy, mentor (who always steps out of the way at the right moment).
Finally, we did my character magic exercise – with fingers crossed behind my back again – and it did work. I actually worked with the teacher on that one.
I think they all enjoyed it. And you could have heard a pin drop whilst they wrote their little scene, having created their two characters. Lots of questions at the end. That felt good.
Yes, very satisfying.