By: Victoria Mixon
PLOT
Plots are myriad, but plot structure is simple: hook, development (with backstory interwoven), climax.
Shakespeare’s five-act play, Syd Field’s three-act story, Freytag’s triangle (although Freytag called complications climax and climax resolution—causing untold confusion): like a holograph, hook-development-climax works on all levels, from the big picture down through chapters, sequences, scenes, to actual lines of dialog.
“What the hell is this?” Kerouac calls out to Slim in On the Road.
“This is the beginning of the rangelands, boy. Hand me another drink.”
Hook your reader (make them curious), tell your story, throw them off a metaphorical cliff when you’re done.
The five biggest mistakes in plotting:
1) Starting with backstory. I know, chronology works in life, but not so well in fiction. Chronology did work back when Moll Flanders wanted to tell us all about where she came from before she told us where she was. But that was then. This is now. Hook your reader first. You’ve got to make them curious before they’ll listen.
2) Letting the complications sag. The middle of a book is common bogland, and that’s why you hear so many people say, “I started that book, but never finished it.” Fitzgerald spent a lot of energy (and his publisher’s patience) on the galleys because The Great Gatsby sagged mid-way. It’s the writer’s job to keep upping the ante on the complications, starting a bigger problem the minute the last one’s resolved, keeping the reader turning those pages.
3) Dragging your denouement out. If at all possible, end at the instant of climax, like Henry James in The Turn of the Screw: “His little heart, dispossessed, had stopped.” You may grieve to let your characters go, but your reader just wants to find out what happened. And if you’re so brilliant they can’t let go–wow! Even more reason to quit while you’re ahead. The best compliment a writer can get is, “I didn’t want that book to end.” Hello, Constant Reader.
4) Putting the climax too far from the end. That’s what your reader is reading for, and when they’ve found it–they stop. It’s true, some brilliant works have been written where the catastrophe is the hook and the rest of the story is exploration of that catastrophe, but that’s sleight-of-hand. The climax is still the point where the writer confronts the reader with the pivotal event. The end.
5) Using a trick ending. Never conceal information from the reader so you can whack them over the head with it on the last page. Even mysteries, which appear to be all about trick endings, give the reader the clues to see through the trick before they get to it. John Gardner was adamant: if you set the reader up to resent you–they will. Good-bye, Constant Reader.
SCENES
Character
It might be your hook that catches the reader’s attention, but it’s the characters who drag them in and hang onto them for life. Know thy characters. They must be real people, not two-dimensional cartoons, with real bodies, real mannerisms and tics, real foibles, dreams, insights, and idiodicies to be ashamed of. Know them backward and forward. Then don’t tell it all. Hemingway said, “The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one ninth of it being above water.”
Dialog
Leave out most of the words. No kidding. Leave out oh, well, yes, no, um, uh (definitely these last two). Leave out names except for extreme emphasis. Leave out first articles and even subjects of sentences wherever possible. Do you answer a question with, “It’s on the table,” or with, “On the table”? Try it and see how much snappier your dialog becomes. For heaven’s sake, leave out ellipses. Be like Emily Bronte and use em-dashes instead. Leave off dialog tags. Replace them with brief significant actions or, if you can get away with it, nothing at all. A book filled with characters talking the way we really talk, with tags, goes on forever and bores even the writer to tears.
Unless absolutely necessary, make characters talk at cross-purposes. How many of us actually listen to other people? We don’t. We’re always thinking about what to say next, when they shut up.
Description
Keep it brief and significant. Raymond Chandler used to be able to burn up the whole first chapter describing a house. You can’t do that anymore. Everyone knows what a house looks like. Find those details that make a person, place, or thing important or unique, mention them, and get back to your characters.
Action
F. Scott Fitzgerald said, “Action is character.” No matter what complications you throw at your characters, no matter what climax you have in store, each character must act in the only way they know how. If you’ve got characters who can react in various ways, you don’t know your characters well enough. Go back and learn them. They have reasons for only being able to respond under pressure one way. And the different ways different characters deal with trouble is where the tension lies, so it’s best to have characters with very different personalities going through this hell together.
Donald Maass also makes the point that action is not necessarily external. Action is very often internal. Conflict is very often internal. Total climactic catastrophe—as we all know—is only too often internal. “Tension on every page,” Maass says, and this is about as good as advice gets.
EXPOSITION
Exposition seeks not to just inform but to enlighten. Don’t waste your reader’s time with explanations. They’ve got brains. Let them use them. Leave out every explanation that can be inferred from the context. When you must cast light upon a scene, do it in context. Either you need to give the reader a breather between bouts of excitement or the tension can be heightened by knowing a little more about what’s going on. Take advantage of pacing to interweave backstory and exposition, but always keep up with your characters.
Go for it.
Wonderful.
First of all, let's talk about putting this together at the last minute. Research and quotes? References? Arrgghhh. I'm going to go committ Hari Kari. I'm also going to hire you to do all my papers for me.
But now, I can talk about the best thing about this article. You role-model alot of what you're talking about. This is especially true when you talk about short, snappy writing. This piece is brisk, informative and clear.
I LOVE what you had to say about dialogue, and I don't know if I've seen it said quite that well before.
Great post, Victoria. Very impressive.
I could print out this perfect nutshell of writing wisdom and throw away my other how-to books. (Well, maybe I'd keep Strunk and White).
The part about just getting that ending down rather than letting things dribble on and on is especially valuable. Lame and long endings are my own pet peeve.
Great job, Victoria, and excellent pick again Nathan!
I find exposition to be especially tricky. I feel like I should be leaving bread crumbs but drop slices and whole loaves because I don't trust the trail I'm marking is clear enough. It's more that I worry about my skills as a writer than that my readers aren't smart enough to figure it out on their own.
If I could just stop looking over my shoulder while I write to see if my reader is still with me….
Hey Mira, we were first and second to the party! I'm usually around comment #167.
It just occurred to me that, were these posts part of a novel, my previous mini-post would have broken the exposition rule bigtime by pointing out something very self-evident. Sorry!
Thanks Victoria! Its nice to get an advice post with such concrete examples. (I'm off to delete any ellipses. Its so funny how many people hate those.)
Thanks to all who contributed. It's been a great week.
And thanks to Nathan for putting it all together.
If anyone is interested in one of the posts he didn't chose, I took his advice and put mine on my LJ- you can read it @ https://elfmama.livejournal.com/7877.html
After working on a novel for several years, I finally began to research the current state of publishing a few months ago. Yes, I know it's a bit backwards, but I wanted to write in a vacuum – not swayed by others's opinions – and THEN take a look around.
Since March, I've read several helpful "lessons" on what NOT to do in your novel. Yours, Victoria, is as helpful as the others, but I nevertheless have a stomach ache.
I happen to like the long, descriptive-heavy books of old, but I've finally accepted that that's simply not the norm today. When a beta reader recently compared my style to Dickens', I knew I was in trouble.
Yet I can't help but wonder – do these "rules" apply today because readers have, in fact, gotten more sophisticated and don't need to know everything about the characters and backstory, or because we live in a faster-paced age where people have shorter attention spans and want to get to the heart of the novel right now? Or is it a combination of both?
While I appreciate such guidelines as yours, Victoria, and know that I need to revamp my story with them in mind, I still fear that if we all follow them, our books will begin to look and sound the same. Is that a rational fear – or am I just experiencing revision-shock? 🙂
Great post!
Oops. I meant to say "others' opinions".
Anyhoo, regardless of my ramblings, I just want to say thanks to everyone this week for such wonderfully inspiring and/or educational posts. And thanks to Nathan for leaving us in such good hands. Perhaps the next time you go on a volunteer vacation – or just a regular ol' beach getaway – you can do the mini-contest again!
I'm sure I'm not alone when I say… I can't wait to hear about your adventures in South America!
P.S. I still don't understand, though, what's wrong with ellipses?
Thank you, Mira and Lupina! You're very kind.
Thermocline, don't look over your shoulder. Keep your eyes focused on your characters. Your reader loves the excitement of running to keep up with you, like a little kid being allowed to follow a big kid around. That's tension!
Victoria
I agree, this is an AWESOME reduction of like every (contemporary) Writing How-To book.
And I do like/appreciate how she points out that (a) this is for modern writing, not meant to serve to retroactively critique literature, and (b) there are exceptions.
Great guidelines, thanks!
Thanks, Nathan, for letting some wonderful writers take over your blog this week.
I'm in the middle of what I hope is my final edit on my current novel, a cozy mystery. This post was very helpful. Thanks, Victoria!
This is all great advice!
I couldn't agree more on the bit about description; Tolkien may have been a brilliant mind, but six pages merely describing Tom Bombadil's face is hard to digest in a world where reader are accustomed to the quick pace of film and video games.
I agree as well about trick endings. I invariably throw books like that on the other side of the room (before retrieving them and nursing them, of course, but that's irrelevant). It's a tempting trick when you're on the other side of the book, but in the back of my mind I always see that sixteen-year-old chucking my book at the wall because the ending came out of nowhere.
Thanks ever so for the advice!
Laura Martone, I am totally with you. I love long descriptive passages. It took me literally decades to accept that modern readers won't stick with you through them. And I deeply mourn their passing.
You are absolutely correct that it has to do with our fast-paced era. Dickens could go on for hundreds of pages because he wrote the equivalent of TV sitcoms–reading was what people did in the evenings then. His were just so great that they went into permanent reruns.
We don't have that kind of audience anymore. There's too much going on–too many cable channels, too much email and texting, too many blogs, too much Twitter.
If it helps any, think of your descriptions in terms of haiku: every single word must carry great import.
I go ahead and write my long, lush descriptive passages in the first draft, then cut them out and put them in an outtakes file, saving them for the collapse of technology, when people will need lots of stuff to read again.
Victoria
Victoria–excellent post! I'd never really thought about why long descriptions no longer worked when they worked in the classics. I don't do them because I find them tedious, but that's because I'm a Modern Reader.
Makes a lot more sense :).
Thank you for the insight and the wonderful advice!
Fantastic post! Thank you, this is very useful and will come in handy when I start revisions. Thanks Victoria – and you too Nathan!
Hey, can we argue? Does that break protocol for kindly guest-posting?
I quite liked this piece (though with the caveat that all rules are really more like rough guidelines… yes, we must always trust in Disney's pirate code), but I have to put a few words of support in for those friendly denouements. Yes, a three hundred page denouement is cruel and unnecessary punishment for a loyal reader. I think point number four*, though, handles this aspect of overly long and drawn out denouements (*don't have your climax too far from the end). But no denouement? Climax and out, sayonara, thanks for the fun time? Yes, the one-night-stand motto might work for some books… but certainly not for all books.
A great climax is, well, great. And yet great climaxes sometimes need time for reflection, they need to be unpacked a little, to be unwound and deciphered. Sometimes the greatest meanings are found in the effects of the climax, not the climax itself.
Climax and out… well, that can be very abrupt. Sometimes that "I wish the story didn't end" can be be a bad thing, can be a voice saying "I'm not satisfied. How does it come together? How does the dust settle? What are the ramifications of that wonderfully exciting conflict?" Abrupt endings can be uncomfortable, can leave a bad taste in the mouth. I watched The International the other day, and it's excised denouement almost ruined a decent thriller for me.
Even some long denouements are quite valuable. The Lord of the Rings, for example, would be a thematically lesser work if not for long denouement chapters like The Scouring of the Shire and The Grey Havens. So be concise, sure. Avoid the run-on denouement, great. Know when to close up shop, wonderful. But tell the story that needs telling. And I have to think that if it needs a denouement you write a denouement.
Though if anyone writes one that's three hundred pages long I think Victoria will be fully within her rights to slap you with a fish.
Readers haven't become more sophisticated; they've become more impatient and arrogant. And a little joydrog. (yeah it was the verification word)
I blame video games. Everyone else does. 🙂
No, but seriously, good post. I've always found it interesting how dialog in books needs to be un-realistic to be more real.
Victoria!
…a serious crash course of 'mind-and-manage-the-pages: game-plan'. Phew.
Ink – I think you make some really good points. I do think sometimes the reader needs some wrap-up. Especially if they are involved with the characters, and there were….what are they called? B storylines. A and B storylines? Am I making that up?
For example, maybe Storyline A is saving the world. But storyline B is the love story. You need time to resolve both.
Victoria – see? You not only created a wonderful post, but you're getting a good discussion going as well.
Nathan – wonderful choices. It does occur to me that there are some outstanding writers that come to your site. Thanks for giving them this opportunity. It's been major fun.
Thank you very much. This post was excellent.
This is an invaluable check-list that I will certainly use to evaluate what I've written. Thank you Victoria.
When I'm selecting a book I've always turned to page 49 too see if I'm being drawn to enter the world held within the pages. Only after that page will I check the blurb and the show-home perfection of page one.
The idea that chronology need not be maintained is at the heart of that method of book selection.
I love the feeling that you've been hooked and are being wound slowly, ever deeper into the character's mind, life and world though.
This is great!
wow…great post.
As a writer, I always get stuck in the bog in the middle. It's tough keeping up the tension.
And as a reader, that's where I put books down. Great beginning…then it slowly sinks into nothing (though I'll occasionally peek at the end to see what happened after the boggy part).
This is a fabulous post. Thank you.
You know what I needed something just like this – it's made me think long and hard about what I've written so far in my book. Food for thought as they say.
However I have a query; what the hell to people use ellipses for in writing and what's an em-dash?
Actually that was two but the point has confused me!
Victoria –
Thanks for the response. I appreciate your perspective and expertise – and I'm glad I'm not the only one who likes "long descriptive passages." I, too, deeply mourn their passing.
On the other hand, long-winded "classics" aren't the only things I read. I have eclectic tastes – and shorter books like THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB or the series that Kathy Reichs and James Lee Burke both write are up my alley, too! So, it's not like I want everything to be long and drawn-out, and I fully recognize that my story could use some major editing!
I guess it comes down to a simple decision: Do I want to pout, stick my head in the sand, and write the way my literary heroes did of old, or do I want to catch up with the times, trim the fat, and be published already?! I can blame Twitter and cable TV all I want, but ultimately, I'd rather get with the program. Just be advised – my family was the last one on the block to get a VCR and a microwave – so my learning process is a slow one. 🙂
Thanks again, Victoria – I especially like your "haiku" comparison – that's an extremely helpful analogy! And I'll take your advice – and save my "long, lush descriptive passages… in an outtakes file" for the potential "collapse of technology" someday. Hey, it happens in the movies all the time – just look at THE ROAD WARRIOR. Course, post-apocalyptic folks are usually only concerned about survival. Reading long passages might not be critical for them either. 🙂
Great, helpful post. Thank you.
Great post. Really well put.
But I am so with Ink and Mira on the climax-and-out thing. So many books these days are like bad boyfriends who roll over and go to sleep two seconds after they're done.
All those abrupt endings make me feel manipulated. The writer seems to be saying, "Neener neener: you have to wait for the sequel!" instead of providing a satisfying resolution.
Victoria thanks for your timely post. I’m in the process of plotting my second book and revising my first. I think you’ve nailed the key elements of the contemporary novel.
I also have concerns and fears regarding the direction that saleable literature is taking. One of my beta readers suggested that I dumb-down my vocabulary—I thought about it—for about 30 seconds. Do we stand on principle or do we suck it up and write a saleable book?
Sell to the masses and eat with the classes or sell to the classes and eat with the masses?
I agree with Bryan, Mira, and Anne. I'm not always a fan of books that end with a climax and a short wrap-up. But I suppose it depends on the genre. Perhaps mysteries, romances, and crime thrillers should end this way, but literary novels – especially those that focus on a character's major change in his/her life direction – have a little more leeway in that department.
That was delicious AND nutritious! Thank you, Victoria.
Thanks for a great post Victoria – very well written and concise.
Nathan – great job picking guest bloggers this week. Oh yeah, that's your job to spot great writers but you do it well.
This was a great week and the guest bloggers were all fantastic. Happy Friday to all! 🙂
Oh, do any bloggers out there know how you save your own blog posts if you created them directly in Blogger? I have no teenagers around at the moment to ask. Thanks.
There are 300 page writing books that basically say this. Great short summary of the basics.
That was a wonderful post. Thank you!
I feel inspired to get back to work on a manuscript that I'd abandoned because I'd gotten "bogged down" in the middle.
Thanks again, Victoria, for the words of wisdom aand encouragement!
This was an excellent read.
Whoops.
Sorry for the typo 🙂
Annerallen,
That was the funniest thing about the boyfriend.
I was drinking something at the time. I'm sending you the clean-up bill. 🙂
You guys are great for taking these points and running with them!
Sure, any time the reader gets the feeling the writer is yanking their chain, you've lost a reader. Don't thumb your nose at anybody you ever want to pony up for a book of yours again.
Your ending is where this episode ends for the main character. If your story ends when the main character has an epiphany about what happened, then that's where the episode ends. It's your pivotal event.
The point is to make it the reader's epiphany, not just the character's. Go out with a bang, not a whimper.
"so we beat against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past…" –F. Scott Fitzgerald
Of course, you can keep writing past that for as long as you like. Nobody's going to stop you. That's the beauty of a solitary art!
Thanks for the in-depth discussion!
Victoria
Perfect timing for this. Thank you, Victoria.
Thanks, Victoria. I thought your blog was brilliant. It's always good to have a reminder of what needs to be on the revision check list. No bogs? Check!
Phil, here's some information on the em dash. https://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/dashes.asp
Thanks Victioria – great post and I love the follow up discussion.
If it helps any, think of your descriptions in terms of haiku: every single word must carry great import.
Your quote seriously makes me think of Marisa de los Santos (BELONG TO ME) and Barbara Kingsolver (BEAN TREES). I am envious of their writing style, vocabulary and especially their descriptive abilities. The imagery's not drawn out, but it's specific. You understand exactly what they're talking about. It's perfect. I want to write like that.
I'm with Mira — I'm very impressed you wrote and researched this in less than a day. VERY well done. Thank you for this post!
An informative, concise look at the process. There's lots to think about here. Thanks!
Careann/Carol J. Garvin
Terrific post!
Great column, Victoria. Thanks. I love having my characters talk at cross purposes.
Bob Sanchez
https://bobsanchez1.blogspot.com
I love it when I find useful information like this with a click of the mouse. *grins
I have to agree with everyone else, this is a great post! Thanks for taking the time to share with us!
Aw, you guys are all so kind!
For the record, I didn't do a lot of research (looked up the exact quotes I wanted). I walk around with this information in my HEAD.
Yeah, and admittedly it's all extrapolated at length on my blog.
I've had a rewarding 30 years in this field! As the greats all say: "Become a writer if you just love this stuff."
Victoria
Excellent post. Thank you, Victoria.
One question, though. I always thought ellipses and em-dashes were two different animals. I use the former to suggest a pause for thought or for similar dramatic effect, and the latter for a faster change of direction or interruption. When used properly and in conjunction, I find my dialog is allowed to generate more interesting rhythms.