Category: Writing Tips

HOW TO PLOT A SHORT STORY – the 3-Act formula that makes it 1, 2, 3!

In this article I will cover mainly plot-driven narrative in plotting the Short Story. I will try to show you some ways of approaching narrative, which you may find useful. You have your own way! But I think you will enjoy this journey. So climb aboard! The trip will take 17.2 minutes and be worth every penny.

The LINE OF BEAUTY

Forgive me for stealing Hollingsworth’s excellent title for his excellent book, but it describes exactly how a good story works: the Line of Beauty, which takes the reader on a delicious (word of the week) unforgettable journey.

What is ‘Narrative’?

Simply, the journey from A to Z. The writer drives the car. Or bus. Or coach. Or maybe just carries you on her/his back. In the beginning, the reader has to be invited on board. In the middle, the reader must be totally absorbed in the landscape and utterly absorbed in the who what where why and how, some of which is part of the landscape. At the end, as the reader alights, she/he must have either had PTSD or an orgasm. Or even, a deep sigh. Or, a very large chuckle. If none of these happen you have failed as a writer,

Beginning, Middle, Bend and End

Plot-Driven Planning

Short stories should, ideally, be in 3 acts. The simplest way of describing them is Beginning Middle and End, obviously! And if you like, the Bend. The unexpected event or person. This can happen anywhere.

Here is an outline:

If the plot is character-driven – you’ve put them in a situation, placed the obstacles, brought in challenges and they figure out what to do and where to go- as a result they’ll make their own line-of beauty. And therefore decide on the conclusion! Your job is to put a brake on your natural self-indulgent desire to decorate bits and throw in useless diversions along the way.

Writers are the most self indulgent creatures ever to walk the planet, except for Donald Trump. That’s because we live in our dreams. As Gods we create characters who, believe me take life. If yours don’t take life you’re crap. Then we put them through heaven and hell. Or, if you’re character-driven rather than plot driven, they put us through heaven and hell and we never really know where the journey’s going. I’ve written extensively on this in my previous blogs.

In this blog, however, I’m concentrating on PLOT-DRIVEN SHORT STORIES.

ACT 1: Beginning

This is the starting point, this is the spark, the idea, the result of that wonderful ‘what if’ moment. See my article on Getting Ideas, if you find it hard setting off on the journey. http://jonelkon.com/no-idea/ Here you set IDEA, CHARACTERS and JOURNEY.

In Act 1, we set off the IDEA whether whole or part (called ‘inciting Incident’ by Snyder and other scriptwriting gurus, and the ‘Action Impeller’ by others)’. This could be an event, an incident, anything good, powerful, bizarre even. Your idea might actually be the end of the journey, or its purpose,

Here we meet the main character, or characters. Here we SET THE SCENE and LAUNCH THE JOURNEY.

See my story ‘Victory for Vittorio’. Act 1 is pretty long. Setting the Scene, meeting the Main Characters. Can you say where Act 1 ends? The ‘inciting incident’ is actually in Act 2! But, as I said, I hate conforming to rules. Here http://jonelkon.com/a-short-story-from-the-ragazzo-a-novel-in-progress/

And critically, this is where the reader may or may not decide to proceed on the journey. Make them! Intrigue, annoy, entrance the reader. S/he must be thinking, wtf happens next! How on Earth are these characters/ this character going to do that>? Survive that? Complete this?

MAKE A TABLE on Word or Excel or draw it out by hand. Firstly:

Act 2: MIDDLE or muddle?

Tell the STORY. The protagonist (Hero/heroine) sets out. Describe the journey. And here, we usually meet the OBSTACLES. You may well have mentioned them in Act 1 as a possibility. The Protagonist needs to face and fight them. Not necessarily overcome them, especially if it’s just one obstacle, say, the baddie, or the Church, or the weather. See my story Victory for Vittorio. http://jonelkon.com/a-short-story-from-the-ragazzo-a-novel-in-progress/ Can you identify where Act 2 starts?

This is the part of the story that can be a swamp.This is where you, the writer, can get lost, can be diverted, can be befuddled by tangents or start to self-indulge to the limit. I am often guilty of these failings. In my other blogs on writing, I have emphasized the importance of editing. I’ll get back to that subject at the end.

Just tell the story! Your protagonist either drives it forward or is driven forward by events. That’s why it’s important that you show how your character reacts or actually grows through the events, without putting in extraneous detail. Yes I know! Difficult. In ‘Victory…’ Vittorio starts looking like a bit of a selfish asshole. Then, in the middle where we get the inciting incident, he seems to change. At the end, we gain respect for him because he has acted according to the desire to save his son. At the beginning, possibly amoral. By the end, a good father who gives up absolutely everything for his son.

We call this the character arc. The extent to which your character changes and/or develops or is destroyed, depends on the events and obstacles. And how s/he overcomes them! Or reacts to them. Or is destroyed by them. See how Vittorio reacts to the obstacles?

Victory for Vittorio is an extract from a novel in progress, so it’s more laid back than a Short Story should be. Look carefully through Act 2: What could be cut, without affecting the narrative?

Fill it in:

Act 3: Conclusion?

Or resolution. Of course, there may be no resolution, if we are left with a cliffhanger. There may even be a final obstacle to mess with our heads! Many writers (including me) like to end a Short Story or a novel with a fantastic last line which changes everything. I do enjoy these stories, even when it’s a little artificial.

The conclusion to ‘Victory’ is rather neat and tidy, but in order to show the relevance to the plot of the novel, the last sentence tells us he is actually one of the important characters in the book.

Everything sorted, everyone happy. Unless, of course, it isn’t sorted and oops, protagonist falls in front of a train. (I used that in one of my Underground stories) The main thing about the conclusion is that often, it’s not.

The TABLE is your GUIDE and helper in writing your Short Story. Frankly, you may never need it. But it’s a great exercise to use it once or twice, embed it into your subconscious so that it guides you in future. Remember, only if you know the rules can you break them. I want you to be able to do that.

You know what I’m going to say next, if you know me.

NOW Kill your Children – a horrible image and way to put it, forgive me.I mean

EDIT THE HELL OUT OF IT go back through with a tooth comb. Cut out anything extraneous, even if it’s beautiful. Fix spg. Cut out or amend cliche. Slice out repetition. Make sure there is a clear Line of Beauty to the plot. That it doesn’t go on unnecessary diversions which do not contribute to plot.

If I were to do that with his blog, for example (I don’t really have time. I’m about to go out of my monk’s cell for the first time in 14 weeks. If I return with a virus, cheers dears.) I could EASILY cut it down by HALF. Maybe I’ll do that, and repost it as LINE OF BEAUTY – EDITED. Soon. Of course the last few sentences would go.

Now do this with a story you have written. I’m telling you, you can cut it by 10 – 30% and make it sparkle! Reveal the inner light by cutting out extraneous darkness. That’s why writing Megasagas (stories limited to 100 words) is so good for you. Cut to the quick.

I hope you found this blog useful! If so, I’ll do one on character-driven stories. My favourite.

Now remember to JOIN the FACEBOOK GROUP https://www.facebook.com/groups/940905559677381/?source_id=1780996938782537

Here you can post stories, comment on other people’s stories and poems, or just enjoy a good read.

READ AND STUDY Parts 1- 6 of this writer’s guide. You’ll find them in the blog. One day I will sort them all under one heading. Perhaps I did that yesterday (I sure tried!)

Email me with any queries or comment below.

And keep an eye on my blog, on Facebook and Twitter as Jon Elkon Writer.

Remember, I love you all.

Donald Trump! Boris Johnson! Jeremy Corbyn! Bolsonaro! Erdogan! Putin! The modern day baddies, at least to half the world. But to the other half? To their mothers? In this tutorial, we will explore how to develop a convincing villain in fiction, who is at least as believable as the real ones.

EXERCISE 1

Marie has run away from home, and is in hiding in a barn. She is 15 years old, has just discovered she is pregnant from the only time she has ever had sex. Her parents are religious fundamentalists.

Who is the villain?

Several possibilities.

The man who made her pregnant? Let’s think about him. Which is more believable:

1. A fifteen-year old boy who is in love with her;
2. Her 30 year-old teacher who seduced her in the classroom
3. Her father.

WHY ARE YOU ASSUMING THAT THE MAN WHO MADE HER PREGNANT IS A VILLAIN?

Levels of Hatred

Which of these would the reader hate most? Obviously we all have a Romeo-and Juliet- induced sympathy, if it’s 1. Aww, young lovers. How sweet.

If it’s 2, our ire is  immediately aroused. The shit. He took advantage of his position of power to seduce a young girl. Under age!

If it’s 3, another layer is added to our fury. Not only did he take advantage of his position of power, he used love as a weapon to fulfil his incestuous desires.

Now, what do we want to happen to each one of these?

Your answers please.

Do you realise that we, the readers, want revenge? The level and type of revenge escalates from 1 – 3, yes? Although as an ex teacher I would devise special tortures for number 2. Plot lines!

What if the villain is the girl? Why should we immediately assume she needs protection? Could you develop the scenario? Suggestion: She’s utterly without conscience or morals, hates her loving, religious parents, seduces a young man to get revenge and drive them crazy…runs away to give them nightmares…

Is there any way you could find a scenario which would excuse number 2 and number 3? Maybe number 2, if combined with the girl-as villain scenario above, but nothing could excuse number 3, right?

Personally, I will always see the girl in this situation as the victim – whether of her parents, upbringing or the men who prey on her. I have no sympathy with them.

PSYCHOPATHS, NARCISSISTS AND SOCIOPATHS

Welcome to the most popular trope of the 90’s all the way to the nownies.  A XPD villain operates  entirely without conscience, is incapable of empathy, is immensely calculating and therefore terrifying to those of us who are part of the approximately 80% of people who are not P, or N, or SPD. (Some experts put the number of people with PPD – Psychopathic Personality Disorder – at 25% of the population. They say that all the captains of industry, education, medicine and of course government are undiagnosed PPDs. I think they have conflated NPDs with PPDs. NPD – Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Or SPD – Sociopathic Personality Disorder…for detail, see https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/mindmelding/201301/what-is-psychopath-0

So yes, of course your villain could be totally BAD. BAD through and through, owing to a personality disorder which you, the writer have thoroughly researched – and used as a basis for the character’s actions and an excuse for not really thinking about emotional motivations. Obviously you do not go into any exposition or explanations, and certainly do not (unless called for in the plot) use any of the technical psychological terms. This gives you licence to have the villain commit utterly horrible acts without having to really explain them, except in purely mechanistic technical terms. The villain then becomes a mere plot device to allow you to fully explore your protagonist’s responses to the obstacles and the journey the villain has imposed on him or her.

EXERCISE 2

a) Which of the FOUR villains (if you accept that in Marie’s story, any of the 4 could be a villain) is most likely to be a psychopath, sociopath or narcissist? Why? (One paragraph)

b) Pick a villain in Game of Thrones who is a member of one of the tribes described above. Explain why you have made your diagnosis. See?

The lazy writer’s Paint your own Villain by Numbers. Or rather, letters.

EXERCISE 3

Study the stereotypical villain above, (which I photographed at the recent brilliant Van Gogh exhibition at the Tate. I forget if it’s by Van Gogh or a contemporary – anyone know?). Explain: WHY did he become a villain? IF he did?

THE UNLETTERED VILLAIN – MOTIVATION!

If your villain is not PPD NPD or SPD, you’re going to really have to explore MOTIVES. In the screenwriting game (I am writing a screenplay at the moment, so I am a little obsessed with film) your villain has to be a 360 degree character, whose physical appearance either complements or entirely contradicts his/her character. Marvel villains are usually sheer black-and white, although the X-Men series has far more subtle tones. The villains in the DC Universe are much, much more obvious. See my previous blog: Character. http://jonelkon.com/part-5-who-creating-believable-characters/

Here’s a very good blog on movie villains https://filmschoolrejects.com/villain-motivations/ and their motivations.

As a novelist, you have a very different job. You have a fantastic advantage over the writer of a villain depicted on screen – you can, should you wish, share  his or her thoughts with your reader. Yes I know, movies have v/o – voice over. But it’s really terribly unfashionable these days. and in the old cliche, adapted for this purpose, the pictures in the mind of the reader are so much better than the pictures on a screen.

So what sort of motives turn a person bad?  Here’s a partial list:

Let’s start with the seven deadly sins! (Links to Wiki)    pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth,

But there are more, of course!

A nasty childhood

Injury, mental or physical

Perceived injury mental or physical

Emotional instability

until we reach the most common: Revenge.

EXERCISE 4:

Pick one of the characters in our saga. Can you ascribe one or more of the motivations above to that character? Write a paragraph saying which, and why!

SAVE THE CAT

As I explained in a previous blog, every human character has to be human! So always show that even a villain has a human side – unless he or she is XPD! (Do you know why people whose partners are XPD stay with them? Despite being controlled, stalked, maybe even beaten? Listen as they say, tears in their eyes – “Only I know the REAL – insert name here – I’ve seen his/her weaker side!”) So always give your villain a soft side; or a reason for being nasty. Not an excuse! Because otherwise you haven’t created a villain, you’ve made a cardboard cutout. See the excellent https://www.amazon.co.uk/Save-Cat-Only-Screenwriting-Youll/dp/1932907009 Gary Snyder’s Save the Cat.

That’s the secret, right there. A villain who could not be admired and loved by someone, if only his or her mother, is not a believable character. Your reader has to have either a trace of sympathy, our complete contempt. The most powerful villains (Heathcliff!) have a side one can sympathise with, or even love.

In my books Umfaan’s Heroes and Laszlo’s Millions, the Brigadier is a perfect example! My latest novel (in progress. Working title: Ragazzo!) has a hero who is a villain. It’s not his fault!

If you’ve got it, you may as well just go ahead and write your book or story or film…

SUMMARY and CHECKLIST

1. Decide: PD or No PD? If no –
2. Motive/s: Pick from list above
3. Human side: Find soft side
4. Decide on final fate!
5. Fit into plot….

FINAL EXERCISE

Using the Marie story above, write a Short Story of around 2,000 words based on all the elements you’ve developed so far.

There will be a SET OF THREE OF MY SIGNED AND DEDICATED NOVELS for the best one submitted to jonelkon3@gmail.com – use subject Marie

NEXT TIME

How to write SEX! The next blog in my monthly series will adequate explain why I’ve never quite succeeded at writing good sex! ….could it be because I never had any good sex? Naaaaaah!

Remember: I am always happy to give advice and help, especially to new writers. Free, natch!

Exercise:

Please have a good look at him or her.

Yes, I mean the person in nearest proximity to you right now.

If there’s no-one near you right now, go to the park. Hop on a bus or tube. Sit at a bus stop. Look. Pick a person to look at. Are you looking?

Describe: Age range. With most people, fairly easy within at least ten years. Sex or gender: with most people, fairly obvious. Their socio-economic group, income, class – a reasonable estimate can be made from their garments.  Fine. Can you do that? The chances are you will be somewhere near the facts, especially if you are a dedicated people-watcher.

If you are NOT a dedicated people watcher, please crawl into the ball of your own ego and give up the idea of ever being a writer! Because the main quality of the good writer – alongside a fair facility with language – is the ability to observe. The world is, after all, a movie for our benefit.

You looked, but did you see? Looking is just the start! Because even if you can draw fair conclusions under the headings above, you know next-to NOTHING about the person you’ve been observing.

Oh yeh? Then answer these questions:

What music do they listen to?

What’s their favourite food?

What do they do for sex?

What do they want from a lover?

Can you know their family background?

What car do they drive?

What do they aspire to?

Who are their heroes?

What illnesses do they have/will they have? What do they do (if anything) for fitness?

What makes them emotional?

What makes them cry?
-What makes them laugh?

What are their hobbies/interests?

What is their opinion of themselves?

WHAT WOULD THEY DO IF:………………………

That’s the main WHATLIST. The ones I can think of here in the Hot House Cafe over my veggie breakfast. (with a couple of other w’s).

But even more important is the WHY LIST. Add “WHY” to each of the questions above and you are beginning to know the person.

As a writer of Fiction, your job is to create characters with a FULL WHATLIST and a FULL WHYLIST.

So yes, you cannot fill in the Whatlist and the Whylist for that delightful creature sitting across the aisle from you. But you write Fiction, so it’s your job to fill both lists with utterly believable lies.

Does this mean you need to include all the Ws in the story or novel? HELL NO. But if you don’t know the answers, at least for your main characters, how the hell can you predict how they will react when they walk in on their mother having sex with their uncle, or when they lose a leg in a tram accident or when they are accused of child abuse?

With minor characters, the full list is not as important but you know what? I love to be able to write the backstory for each and every character, as you will see in Laszlo’s Millions and even more in my forthcoming novel, the Ragazzo.

If you create full, rounded, 360 degree multidimensional characters, they come to life. Believe me! You and your keyboard are the god who manufactures people and their worlds.

Inspiration for Characters

So no-one ever invents a character from nothing. (Challenge!). Every character in fiction is inspired, or sparked, or dictated by someone real. This is WHY the writer is a dedicated people-watcher. But you have to be more than that.

You have to be a PEOPLE COLLECTOR!

You and your notebook are the equivalent of the butterfly-hunter with her net. Everybody is individual, precious, special. Every person in the real world has a full Whatlist and a full Whylist. (See my previous blog for How, When, Which, W, W, W etc). Whatever you can find out – or collect – feeds into your understanding of humans, which can feed into your fiction. Ask questions. Observe. Especially facial expressions. MOTIVATIONS and BACKSTORIES are treasure.

Your friends and relations are the first people to collect! People you know most about have the most clues to yield to human motivations, types, reactions to events.

Love People!

Because the key to any character is (you’ve read this far so you deserve your reward) is not just what they are and why, but therefore –

WHAT DO THEY FEAR?

WHY?

WHAT ARE THEIR WEAKNESSES?

HOW WOULD YO DESCRIBE THEIR SELF-ESTEEM?

WHY?

And, of course, the opposites: What do they hope, why, what are their strengths, why.

Btw: A little extra madness for you to contemplate: Sometimes I like to decide when their birthday is, and their astrological sign. This helps me to set character, although astrology is probably bullshit. I would never bring it up in a novel unless it was relevant to the plot of course. And I only use it when stuck. Not routinely!

Another nutty thing I do: do you know what nominative determinism is? The theory that people’s names often send them to appropriate occupations. Dammit I’ve just heard a Food Programme produced by Dan Saladinho. Gardener’s World has a presenter called Bill Sourbutts. I bet you can think of loads of examples. Well, the same often applies to personal characteristics or personality types so I often bury a type within a name. This is nothing new; Dickens did it all the time! Uriah Heep, a snivelling creep. Scrooge – which came first, the name or the type of mean person? Check some of the names in my books or short stories, you’ll see why I mean. I do try not to be too obvious!

Body types: Bear in mind the basic types – ectomorph, mesomorph and endomorph. Ecto: naturally thin, hyper, they eat lots and never get fat. Meso: if they eat lots, they get fat. Middle! Endo: often overweight and self-indulgent (arguable). LINK the body type to their emotional and intellectual worlds. I’m not telling you how to do that. OBSERVE! COLLECT!

Intelligence: How people react and respond to events depends on how well they can calculate risk, how emotional they are at the time, how hungry they are, how tired, how randy… so many factors! Remember, IQ is only one measure of one type of intelligence. But always bear in mind your character’s ability to process information. I’m not telling you how to do that. OBSERVE! COLLECT!

There is no substitute for compassionate insight!

If you love humans, you will need to understand humans. If you understand real humans, you can give birth to fictional ones. You must inhabit their private worlds, even as you create them. If they are happy, you are happy. If they suffer and you, the writer, don’t weep, then your character is not real.

The fate of Pieter in Lazlo’s Millions plunged me into absolute misery and guilt for months. Pieter was 360 degrees of a person. Based firmly on someone I know very well, it was easy to define and encompass him with words.

Make them live! Your characters live, laugh, suffer, love and die at your behest. They will inhabit your world your whole life, and the worlds of your readers. You have the absolute responsibility to make them REAL. (God I hate cardboard 2d stereotypical characters. Avoid stereotypes! Even though some people appear to be stereotypes. Just look inside.)

(Sheesh. I could write a book on this topic. Perhaps I will. But meanwhile, please pick up and use some of the above in your writing. And always remember, if you would like free help and advice, you only have to email me johnelkon@yahoo.co.uk)

May good luck – and more important, hard work! – make your writing better every day.

NEXT TIME: How to WRITE A VILLAIN!

Ideas! Where does a writer of fiction get ideas?

This is one of the most common questions writers get – in this article I will give you my ideas about ideas. I hope many of these will be eminently practical and useful.

YOU LIAR YOU!

As I have written before, a writer of fiction is a professional liar. That’s what the word “fiction” means. So you are going to hit that keyboard with lie after lie, and if you lie well enough you can make money from it. After all, Trump has! But then his motives are far darker than yours.

Here then is some damn good advice for generating ideas:

1. Start with the TRUTH and lie about it. 

My first novel is shamelessly autobiographical. This is true about most authors. Look at this list! Did you know most of these writers started their literary career with their own life story? How many first novels can you name which start with autobiography – or a version of it?

Here’s the Wiki list:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobiographical_novel

You have a great story – your life story! However boring it may seem to you, there are aspects of it, if lied about, which could be fascinating to a stranger. If in doubt pick something TINY. Say, the owner of the local sweetshop in your home town had a wart on his cheek. The sweet shop closed when you were twelve. You were fairly sad about that.

How boring.

So fictionalise!: It wasn’t on his cheek. It was on the end of his nose. It continually dripped and grew larger over the years. At first his customers giggled about it but due to the local gossiper (introduce an interesting character, not a cliché!) they began to suspect he was diseased, and eventually stopped buying his sweets. Now the sweet shop owner was a single parent with a young teenage son, a brilliant mathematician who was offered a place at Oxford, but because of the old man’s impoverishment, he would have to become a cashier at Tesco’s…. now write on! Set yourself free from your own story. Take the truth and lie about it!

Maybe you have had a fascinating life, full of drama, challenge and really funny episodes. If you want to tell your story, fine! Write a memoir. But truth is so often unbelievable, or melodramatic, or not nearly as interesting to another person as it is to you. So take the truth and lie about it! See my first novel.

The protagonist: In your lies, the protagonist (the person the story is about) can be you, in the first person, or someone totally different. Who is still you. Try changing genders. VERY HARD TO DO. I tried it in my third novel, Sally’s Road.  Critics were very flattering but frankly I don’t think I pulled it off. No pun/s intended. (In my coming novel I do pull it off. Because the protagonist is a castrato. Apologies for the bad joke.) Maybe you are a great winner in your life. Your protagonist could be a winner too. Or a loser, but if you want to sell film rights to Hollywood, he/she must win in the end.

The plot:

THE TWO BIGGEST WORDS IN IDEA GENERATION:

WHAT IF….

2. “What if” everything!!!

 Some of my best Short Stories started with a simple “What if…”. This one started with “What if Donald Trump is an alien?” http://jonelkon.com/report-from-earth/

This one: “What if the partner of the girl you have been having an affair with gets you on the back of his motorcycle?” http://jonelkon.com/pillion/

This one: “What if ‘Tube Surfing’ was a Thing?” – inspired by my stupid habit of seeing how long I could stand unsupported in a tube train. Which inspired: “What if there was a secret society of Tube Surfers?” and then “What if two Narcissistic macho males decided to have a life-or death Tube Surf competition on the Circle Line?” http://jonelkon.com/tube-surf-no-exit/ SO “what ifs” breed. Put “What” and “If” in a brain cell together and they are going to have babies.

(That one, No Exit, was to be made into a film until London Transport said No Way, it encourages dangerous behavior. How boring.)

EXERCISE: Can you sum up the “what if” in my stories “Mile High”, http://jonelkon.com/mile-high/

And “In a Flash”, http://jonelkon.com/in-a-flash-500-words/

3. EVERYTHING is inspiration!

Anything and everything can spark ideas. We are surrounded by the everyday. But it’s your job to make the ordinary assume the mantle of the extraordinary. In a new, exciting, amazing way. Take the ordinary. Expand on it. Throw in an interesting character. Make the ordinary start to distort around this character. How is he/she reacting to the ordinary? Preferably, in an unusual or eccentric way, and you have the start of a story.

For example: there is a thunderstorm. Wow. Now to make it interesting, lie about its intensity, add in an interesting or boring character (possibly yourself), and some others and a bit of What If and you have a story. You see a pair of shoes lying on the sidewalk! (One of my stories was sparked by this experience). Wow….now what…..,

Which inspires my last idea (for now) as to how to get ideas:

4. WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE and WHY? Or, why not? Also a dose of HOW.

Throw those words at your setup. Add What If to each. Be able to set your imagination free to INVENT. You must know the answers to ALL those questions about your plot, character/s EVEN IF THEY ARE NOT IN YOUR STORY. I was once given excellent advice as to how to assume a character when I was on the stage. “You must know what they had for breakfast. And why!”. It wouldn’t be in the script, but for damn sure characters have to be living, breathing, 360 degrees in your brain. They must piss, shit and probably masturbate….but more about CHARACTERS in the next blog!

I hope these words have been of some help, dear writers. Please feel free to email me with examples, queries, or in response to the exercises in this blog.

NOW

5. SET YOUR IMAGINATION FREE! Your dreams are rich and rare and colourful, so that proves you could be a lovely writer. Your dreams are also great sources of inspiration! Harness them. Craft them. Develop your vocabulary by wide reading. Continually write. Have a notebook by you at all times.

WRITE, WRITE and WRITE!

…let me know how you get on….jonelkon3@gmail.com or post a comment below.

Do read my Tips for Writers Parts 1 2 and 3! They’re right here, in the panel on your right.

SECRETS, LIES AND SURPRISE!

And AIDA!….

What are the basics of a good joke?

Start with the ordinary. Then surprise! And people laugh because the unexpected snuck up on them like a sudden feather up the nose.

Here are some of the worst jokes on the internet:  http://justsomething.co/18-of-the-funniest-jokes-ever-10-is-gold/

Almost every one of them relies on wordplay. An unexpected rendering of a well-known word or phrase. In other words, a dad joke. Or a dud joke. See? I just made one! But in writing fiction, bad wordplay is horrible. Avoid! But good mind play makes all the difference.

It’s easy being ordinary. Extraordinary requires balls. Especially if you’re a woman.

(Is that bad wordplay? Or just put there to annoy and shock? Do not misinterpret the above. I’m not going into why the last  paragraph is not sexist. It just isn’t.)

Extraordinary means avoiding cliche of course – in my previous tutorial I explained how you can demolish the components of a cliche to create better images. In this article I am going to concentrate on the hunt for refreshment – waking up language to surprise and delight the reader with the deliciously different.

The best place to hit them with the unexpected is obviously the first line of a story or novel. It took me ages to come up with killer first lines, long  after the novel was completed. I am happy with my openers of my first two. Umfaan’s Heroes’ : “ Hallo. My name is Thomas Bloch. I am lying on a bed in a military hospital. This is 1967. The body I am wearing is full of holes, dents, cuts and bruises….”

Full of surprises and mysteries.  The reader’s question is “why?” What does he mean by “the body I am wearing”?  And so the reader’s duty is to find out. Hence, read on.

In Laszlo’s Millions, I used a whole paragraph to get the reader to invest in the story.

So like a good joke, I end the paragraph with a surprise, that is also a teaser. Then, sudden surprising backstory.

The great secret of good advertising – and getting a potential reader to buy your book  –  is also the name of a grand opera: AIDA. An acronym, of course.

Attention- get it with jacket design, blurbs, reviews, title.

Interest: arouse interest with your first lines

Desire: make the reader want to know what comes next. With a teaser or a great character or an amazing event.

Action: read on! Read to the end!

So you, dear writer, had better earn the honour of a reader reading your whole damn book and loving it.

Sing! Skip Ad! Skip Ad!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3w4I-KElxQ 

My novel in production (which may be called ‘Ragazzo’ or ‘Castrato’ or possibly, ‘Opera’, whichever delights me more) begins with “     “ (Not telling you yet. That first paragraph is still being crafted.)

However good the first line, if the rest’s crap, you have created a mere fart. Your mum or boy/girlfriend will notice it for a bit, snarl, blame you for polluting the family name, and then forget it ever happened. All it will ever leave behind is the trace of a sneer.

So what is the difference between farting and a good shit?

CANCEL THE ABOVE!

A perfect example of a writer striving so hard for originality, he reverts to shock. Toilet images. Boo.

Surprise! Watch Killing Eve Season 2 Episode 1. The scenes are like small islands in a bloody sea which the viewer visits in sequence. Attached to each island are sweet seconds of surprise: In a mortuary, with a gruesome body in the foreground, Eve suddenly says “I want a hamburger” to which the response (I think it was Carolyn) is, “It’s the formalin. It makes you crave meat.” So they order burgers and eat them while discussing the cause of death. The burgers have no relevance to the plot whatsoever.

There are many more, this episode is the perfect example of what I mean.

As to writers, Kurt Vonnegut is a master of this technique.

Exercise: watch an episode of a successful Netflix or Amazon series.  Choose something more or less in the Black Humour genre. Black Mirror is perfect. OR Killing Eve, of course. Identify an island, and explain how SURPRISE is used.

Afterthoughts:

1. Do not overuse surprise or it’s no longer surprising.
2. Avoid dad jokes
3. Be playful! But never cause teeth to grind.
4. Be aware of GENRE, tone, pace and style. Getting this right is critical.

The scriptwriter I’m working with on a series says, “Every scene must have conflict in it.” NEXT TIME: How to use CONFLICT and contrast.

KEEP WRITING! Remember, I am happy to read your exercises and make comments, either use the comment thread below or email me at jonelkon3@gmail.com.

p.s: Secret exercise: There is evidence that I don’t always follow my own rules in the article above. Can you find it?

A little while ago I dropped a fantasy/dystopian/horror plot idea on to Facebook and this website, see http://jonelkon.com/a-writing-exercise-for-you/and just wanted to share this one from Grigor, which I think is pretty gruelling, with my comments.  I’ll paste it in at the end of this blog. Gregor has given me permission to use it as an example. Thanks for that!

What do others think?

Other writers who have submitted, I have answered you individually with ideas for improvement or general points on style etc, but herewith a few general points:

1. Exposition can be an enemy, unless it’s done in an incredibly original way. In my new novel, I have to inform the reader about how castration plays a major part in the history of Opera. Yes, really! So hard to do, so I understand how some of you resorted to explanations. Have a look at how Grigor did it. Did he succeed?
2. Humour: look (Abbie!) it’s very hard to present this kind of plot humorously. As I’ve said to you, you did it but be very careful of used tropes…
3. At the other end of the spectrum: horror. It is hard to be bleak without exhausting the reader. Perhaps the tone of Grigor’s is what I like.
4. Viewpoint character: always decide whose story this is, and who’s telling it. If a detached narrator – who is he or she? Is he/she omniscient? You don’t have to say who she/he is, as long as you know.
5. TONE!
6. On the subject of cliches (no names!) – people often use cliches in speech, so to some extent I forgive you. But there is no excuse for “he was as sick a a parrot” (yes, really.) Sometimes I take a well-worn cliche (like that one – i.e a ‘well-worn cliche’) dust it, polish it and change it. You could Monty-Python it, for example, by saying ‘as sick as a dead parrot’ Or ‘sicker than a parrot under a steam roller’ but that works better in humorous writing.
7. What else: description: showing off! Adjectives and adjectives upon adjectives. Not trendy! Better to look at your most beloved sentences and give them a snip, without castrating them. Here’s a writer’s cliche for you: “Be ready to kill your babies” – i.e, sometimes a sentence or a description or even a character can easily be culled, leaving the whole story much better for it. (You know who I’m referring to dear fellow.)

If YOU submitted a story and you are prepared to let me pull it apart here, in public, please let me know. (email is best).

So here then, not presented as the ideal but simply as a version I liked, is Grigor’s story. My comments are in BOLD.

A DEATH

Interesting Title. Teasing, but could he have used something more interesting?

When he opened his eyes, he knew he was no longer here. The evidence was all around him. The shattered remains of his Piper Cub airplane, clinging to the side of the cliff as if crucified. And Blo was just below the wreck on a narrow ledge, with aircraft fuel spurting down onto him.

Great setup! Very visual and original. I love “as if crucified”

A man ambled along a path at the base of the hill toward him, whistling. He was about twenty five, gaunt for his age, almost cocky, walking with the insouciant confidence of a young man who knows precisely where he is going.

“Who knows precisely…etc. Could he have used a more original description?

Thank God, thought Blo. “Hey there! Help! Help” he shouted

“Hello up there!” The man looked up, saw him and winked. “I say,” he said, “got yourself in a bit of a mess haven’t you?”

I like the implied tone of the man at the foot of the cliff. I hear an exaggerated posh accent. Good fun

“A bit of a mess! Help me! The plane’s about to blow!”

Just then the plane blew up. A fireball roared out from the fuel tank, a horizontal volcano erupting outward.

Shock and surprise! Love this. Can a fireball erupt outward?

Everything disappeared. When Blo opened his eyes he was lying at the foot of the cliff. The Man stood over him, arms akimbo, a huge grin splashing across his face as if  he’s suddenly understood the joke.

Good stuff! We may realise Blo has died, and ‘getting the joke’ is a wry and ambiguous phrase here.

“Welcome!” the Man said,  “Conscious now are we?”

“I don’t know….” Blo said, inspecting himself for injuries. “I don’t believe it…” He inspected himself for injuries. Then he stood, shakily and looked up at the still-burning plane.

“I think we’d better get you out of here,” the man said, taking his arm. “It looks to me as if we may just be about to get rained on by flaming aircraft.”

Pace: We need to move the action on rapidly, and Grigor tackles this well by changing the scene.

Rapidly the two men ran down the road, and none too soon, as what was left of the Piper Cub rained down onto the ground in showers of flaming metal and fuel.

“Where am I?” Blo asked. “Where are we going?”

“My name is Ronnie”, the Man said. “I was ambling on my way to the Capital, going to see my girlfriend, when I saw your plane come down. So welcome, Blo.”

“Thank you I think! How far are we from the city?”

“Oh, a few miles…we’ll be there soon. Are you ok to walk?”

“I think so – ” Blo said, “Depends how far…”

We probably suspect that Blo may be dead, but so far Ronnie hasn’t let him realise it. This enables tension to build up. As the story goes on, it gets more surrealistic. It starts with the next line:

“Hey!” Blo said suddenly. “How did you know my name?”

“Ahhhh,” Ronnie said, “is that your name? I guessed it.”

The reader now realises that she/he is in a different territory and hopefully at this point, invests in the story. Wanting to know! Reading ON. And this is the task of the writer: to draw the reader into the writer’s world. In your stories: how do you get the reader to invest their time into your creation?

I’m now going to cut to the reveal, because if I’m to get YOU to invest in this literary exercise, I need to avoid giving you too much at one time. If you want the whole thing, email me and I’ll send it to you.

Blo has met Grey, and has learned that he (Blo) himself is a type of android and that most of Humanity – excluding Ronnie and Grey in Grigor’s interpretation – (interesting but I don’t think credible.) (Gregor?) – is android.

Grigor has chosen to do the Reveal in dialogue. How else could he have done it?

….. Ronnie laughed. “Shall we watch the sunset together? There’s a great view from this hill!”

“I don’t understand!” Bro protested. “If I’m an android – I mean, just a fucking ROBOT – how am I supposed to enjoy a sunset?”

“Of course you will enjoy it! You are programmed to enjoy it! Here. Come sit with me.”

And so man and robot sat there, on Blue Tree Hill, watching as the sun dropped gently into flaming clouds as if into a comforting warm bath.

Does this image work for you? I’m in two minds. I like the name of the hill. Perhaps that could have been signposted earlier? Here we may be pleased Grigor sees Ronnie as a Human – potential for irony.

“I liked it when there were lots of humans,” Ronnie said with a sigh.

“Why?” Blo asked. “I thought you said they were a waste of space!”

Ronnie laughed. “They certainly wasted their space! Space and time. An infestation. A virus. An infection the planet had to dispose of.”

“Yet they created us. Us Androids.”

A chilly wind crept over them from the East, making Ronnie shiver.

This is nice. Breaking the exposition up with some weather, or description. The use of “chilly wind” is also a reference to the chilly nature of the information Ronnie is sharing.

“They did. It was the only way they could ensure their survival in some form…”

“Tell me something”, Blo said eventually. “Ronnie – why did this happen? I mean humans replacing themselves with Androids and getting wiped out?”

“Same old same old,” Ronnie said. “Combination of Climate Change, nuclear war, starvation, blah blah. They were warned and warned.”

“It’s rather sad,” Blo said, rather sadly.

I don’t actually like this repetition, clever as it is. It seems forced.

“Mmmm.” Ronnie agreed.

By now the night was establishing itself over the shattered land. Stars were making their appearance, and man and android felt very alone.

“Ronnie?” Blo said.

“Ask.”

“Seeing as I’m going for repair, and I assume you’ll wipe my memory – ?”

“Yes we will. We have to make you a new body as well. You’ve pretty much wrecked this one.”

“So you can tell me now. You can tell me the truth. Can’t you?”

“I suppose I can,” the man said.

“So – how long ago did all this happen? This destruction? This – mess?”

“In Earth years?”

“Yes, dammit. How long ago? Tell me!”

“Very well, I will,” he said. Then “To the nearest thousand years?”

“Yes! Tell me!”

“Around ten thousand years. Yes, close to that.”

The Android wept.

End

I can see what he was trying to do – end with a shock, an emotional jar, with the political/environmental message spooned in.  I like the way he spins it out, for effect. To some extent he was successful. But trying to make political points in fiction is very dangerous territory! Not entirely his fault, as I wrote the plot.

I am impressed with Grigor’s interpretation, as I am with those of some others. Special mention to Michael M, Sandy, Thandeka, Morris and Marie EW. Baie dankie ne!

NEXT EXERCISE: Big lesson for me! So many people found this a tremendously difficult project, so let’s start with something much easier. I think on a scale of difficulty from 1 – 10, this was a ten. Most people left huge holes in the plot. Which made me realise that this plot needs to be a novel, not a Short Story. We’re all learning!

Keep an eye on my Facebook page and this website. The next MEGASAGA competition is coming up, and the next LET’S LEARN WRITING blog will appear soon!

ONE WEEK LEFT! Have a go! Don’t be shy! Use all or part!

ARE YOU A WRITER? I am offering you the opportunity to develop your skills for FREE with an occasional series of writing exercises. I will help you with style, content, and general tips for improvement!

WHY am I doing this? I need breaks from writing my current novel! And I’d love the opportunity to help new writers!

HERE’S the FIRST exercise:

This is the plot that came to me at 3am last night. It’s not fantastically original, but then almost anything you think of in terms of plot, someone has thought of before. But as Gary Snyder says in his excellent book on screenwriting, “Save the Cat” if you can’t do it different, just do it better.

Can you do it better?

Genre: Science Fiction/ Fantasy/Horror

Blo opens his eyes. He sees a cheerful face of Ronnie before him. Ronnie urges Blo to follow him. With difficulty he follows, asking questions and receiving answers.

We begin to realise that Blo has just died.

They meet Grey. He explains that Ronnie is taking him (Bro) for “repair”. If he were taking Bro, it would have been for “disposal” Those who are “repaired” are reborn. Those disposed of are, well…

Here we get intimations that Heaven and Hell are simply misunderstandings.

The Reveal: mankind destroyed itself through Climate Change a hundred thousand years ago, but not before they had developed sophisticated AI and organic robots, which were programmed to continue to produce robots in the image of the former humans. And so the cycle continues.

You will need to explain the absence of artefacts and remains – eg what was not destroyed by hurricanes and other disasters was scoured off the Earth by the robots, on the instructions of “the Programmers”, maybe god.

Task: how can you do this without a huge amount of boring exposition? Can you convey all this interestingly in a Short Story? Novel? Film?

Use any or all aspects of the plot above. Change names if you wish. Use the ideas to set off YOUR ideas.

Try it as a Short Story. Send it to me and I’ll publish the five best ones on my website – with your names of course! I’m not a copyright thief. I will send a free critique to the writers of the best ten.

Email your story to me jonelkon3@gmail.com with the subject COURSE

Deadline: YOU HAVE 3 WEEKS