Act One

I've had a life-long love affair with books and a somewhat dusty journalism degree, so when I set out to pen my first novel, I was certain I knew a thing or two about writing. Turns out, I really didn't.

When I studied novels in high school, we talked about POV--as in first person (I), second person (you), and third person (he or she). Sometimes, third person was also described as the omniscient narrator. We studied theme such as racism in To Kill a Mockingbird and symbolism in The Great Gatsby, so I thought I knew novels.

I had no idea that the POV character of a scene could only know what s/he could feel or experience or think. No head-hopping around the dinner table. No author intrusion, "If only Sally would have known what was about to happen next." Novels had to begin somewhere but we never discussed inciting incidents, and conflict equaled man/man, man/nature or man/self. I knew that movies/screenplays were organized into three acts, but I had no idea that books were often segmented that way.

According to Award-winning Author Susan May Warren, in her latest writing craft book, Deep and Wide Advanced Fiction Techniques for Making Your Characters Deeper and Your Plot Wider, these are the elements that should be woven into the plot and emotional journey of Act One:

--Home World/Glimpse of Hope
--Inciting Incident/Invitation to Change
--The Big Debate...Regret of the Missed Opportunity
--Need to Change...Which results in The Noble Quest

* If you have two or more POV characters, you'll need to chart the emotional journey for each one.

One of my wip's (work-in-progress), opens with the home world of my character, Sophie, a single mother, who is worried she'll be late for work--and possibly fired--but she's delayed because she's having an argument with her teenage daughter. I try to answer basic who/what/when/where/why questions about Sophie's life.

I offer Sophie a glimpse of hope as she dumps everything out of her purse onto a beautiful table she'd restored. She's able to take worn-out discarded things and make them beautiful. In time, and with God's help, she'll restore her family and her life.

The inciting incident sets the story in motion. Think, the news that the Civil War has started during the festivities at Twelve Oaks Plantation in Gone with the Wind. The inciting incident in my story happens when Sophie's car is involved in a collision with Paul, a good-looking, sweet-talking man. Now, she's not only lost her job, but her car is totaled as well.

Need to Change. Sophie's immediate needs are to find a job and obtain transportation. But her noble quest is to take care of her family, and not just financially. She needs to make sure her two daughters don't make the same mistakes that she made. They need to avoid becoming involved with irresponsible, charming playboys at all cost. Can she afford to stand on principles and turn down the temporary job Paul offers her?

I left out one element: The Big Debate/Regret of Missed Opportunity because I haven't made that clear. Now that I've got this checklist, I know what my first chapter still needs.

Take a look at your wip. Are all these elements woven into the first act of your novel?

~Roxanne Sherwood

Which Way?

For years I lived life as a non-fiction writer. I blissfully ignored all the ins and outs of writing fiction--they didn't apply to me. When friends discussed their characters as if they were real people, I smirked. Puh-leeze! None of this "hearing voices" for me!

And then ... I wandered over to the "dark side" and tried my hand at writing fiction. Why? Because I was burned out with magazine and book deadlines. I swore I wasn't going to write another word ever, ever again.

Within days of my pronouncement, I found myself unearthing the snippet of a book idea and playing with it. No pressure. Just fooling around. Now I am meeting with a weekly critique group, producing a chapter a week. Sometimes I'm begging the voices to say something--anything--to give me a clue as to where the plot of my WIP is going!

And, yes, I'm learning the rules of writing fiction. I know I need a plot. I know I need to develop my characters. I know there needs to be conflict. Point of View. Dialogue. Character arc.

I also know there are lots of different tools out there to help me develop my book idea. I stumbled across a new one recently. The January issue of Writers Digest includes an article by Karen S. Wiesner, author of From First Draft to Finished Novel. In her article, Your Novel Blueprint., Wiesner recommends a Story Plan Checklist that helps a writer pinpoint key elements like:

*character descriptions
*plot conflicts
*settings
*evolving goals and motivations

To download sample worksheets or checklists to help you craft your novel, go here.

Seat-of-the-Pants V. Plotster?

Generally, writers fall into two camps: those who plot every detail before writing the book, and those who write by the seat-of-their-pants, never knowing how the story will unfold until events happen to the characters.

Plotsters may start with a single concept, building on an idea until they know everything that will happen in each scene and chapter.

Good resources:
Randy Ingermanson's website for the Snowflake Method
First Draft in 30 Days by Karen S. Weisner

Authors may answer dozens--even hundreds--of questions to create elaborate character sketches, so they know every detail about each person in the book.

Books with Questionaires:
The Plot Thickens: 8 Ways to Bring Fiction to Life by Noah Lukeman
Building Believable Characters by Marc McCutcheon

You’d think that every writer of suspense or mystery would be a plotster. Most are. They have to know who is the killer, who are the suspects, which red herrings to plant as false clues. But that’s not always the case. Some actually write by the seat-of-their-pants and don’t know who the killer is at the start of the novel. I’ve heard of novelists who think they know, only the killer changes as the story develops.

Writing by the seat-of-the-pants takes just as much thought as it does for someone who plots first. It’s just that the thinking is done in discovery as the story is written, rather than before. Unfortunately, it sometimes means unnecessary blind alleys and dead ends.

I wish I’d think of a high concept story, then plot in rich, glorious detail before I started writing. But my mind’s not wired that way. When I’ve tried to plot, I put myself into a box and all my creativity fled. So I’ll stick with what works, Creating memorable, three-dimensional characters. Using the following books:

Books to develop characters:
Goal, Motivation & Conflict by Debra Dixon
The Complete Writer's Guide to Heroes & Heroines by Cowden, LaFever and Viders.

Without serious plotting, I know that I’m doomed to rewrite. But each time I rewrite a scene, I get closer to the book I’d have written if I’d planned it that way.

It takes a lot of thought to plot before writing. But I wouldn’t know the characters, so I wouldn’t think of how they’d react in a given situation. From the start, I knew Stephanie didn’t want to marry Sam, but why not? Hadn’t I created a wonderful hero just for her? I had to work with her for a while to know why. I knew Drew had injured his ankle, but I didn’t know how until he jumped off a balcony. An emergency room visit, then the accident?

Yeah, not only do I write by the seat-of-my-pants, I don’t even write scenes in order. I write whatever scene I can picture most vividly in my mind. For my current wip (work-in-progress), I wrote the ending about three months into what’s turned into a five-year project. I needed to write the destination, so I’d know where my characters were heading. I’ve actually met several authors—some are even successful—who create through this fashion.

In the end, it’s the final manuscript that matters, not the process used to create it. Do you plot first or write by the seat of your pants?

~Roxanne Sherwood~