Melanie, author of White Heat, Hopping, Silvertown and The Long Exile, started by asking us all to write on a piece of paper the things that hold us back from writing. There were various answers but the two recurring and connected reasons were time and lack of confidence. She then informed us that the workshop would deal with three writing staples, scenario, character and narrative, then the eight point arc and the classic story structure.
1) Scenario/situation: the world of the novel, time frame
Melanie introduced us to the 'what if?' exercise as mentioned in Stephen King's excellent book 'On Writing' as this shows you the common themes that you are passionate about and shows you what you should be writing about. If you use this exercise, the plot points that you have written should help you when you get stuck. The 'what if? exercise is to take a lined piece of paper, split it into three sections and write a list of 'what if?' questions that follow on from each other, for example mine started with these three:
What if everyone could see dead people? What if this stopped them living their lives? What if this means no-one falls in love any more?
Then complete the list until you get to the bottom of the page. Then pick a question about half the way down your list and turn it on it's head, e.g. 'What if the clones where better than the people?' would turn into 'What if there is something wrong with the clones?' Then continue the list to the bottom of the page and then repeat this exercise until you have three lists of 'what if?' questions.
Doing this exercise could be a surprise and you may not be writing about what you think you should be writing about and this lack of planning can be why you get stuck, but not any more.
Melanie then explained that there are only 7 stories except ones that take in elements of these, but no-one writes like you so this should not hold you back and that all literature is about solving problems.
2) Character
Deep character is shown by the choices that someone makes in a given situation - character is action, e.g. run away or fight, save the child or the woman. Character comes in as you write your plot (your 'what if's?'). Writing your book is like driving at night - the beginning of a book is a shadow and as the book goes on the road becomes clearer, but you can't know that from the beginning.
Melanie explained that the first draft that she shares with her editor/agent is usually the seventh she has written and then there are 8-10 drafts of editing before it comes out. She starts with detailed plotting (framework) but the character dismantles it and she has to reconstruct. A novel is 100k words and she can't keep it all in her head, so she writes chapter summations. She has written 7 books and is working on 2 at the moment, a series with 3/4 characters and a standalone with a whole set of new characters.
We then did three exercises to narrow down character. First writing a character sketch of ourselves in first person including qualities, what you want from life, what inner conflict/s are and what your most obvious characteristics are. Then write a character sketch of yourself, written in the perspective of someone who doesn't like you and what that person thinks you want, what your inner conflicts are and your characterisations, which might be the opposite of what is the truth. The third exercise was to write a character sketch of yourself from the point of view of someone who likes you, friend, family etc. using the same parameters. This should be very revealing as all people lie to themselves about themselves to various degrees and how other characters respond to the main characters and their motives behind this in your book reveals character, but keep in mind that your characters may be deluding themselves and the reader. Their constant reactions to how they relate to one another, make decisions in modes of action (inner conflict, what they think they want and what they actually want) and how they interact with people around them are the key to character. You can do this exercise to help understand your characters as you are writing them.
Melanie did warn us that goodness writes blank though, your hero cannot just be good, s/he needs to be flawed somehow, but they can be horrid so long as those around them are worse or if they are deliciously horrid, but they must not be just good.
90% of our communications are body language, but the narration is about verbalisation, so maybe tape people (particularly those with a quirky way of talking) and this can inspire you to try out something similar, e.g. an angry person would talk in short bursts and a placid, dope smoker would use long sentences and talk nonsense. Elmore Leonard was a genius at dialogue, but no-one actually speaks like that; you must heighten it, it must serve a purpose and differentiate each character.
She recommended completing a first draft and then go through it and make decisions for each character about how they talk and edit them accordingly.
Tomorrow's blog post will deal with PART 2 of the workshop about narration and the 8 point arc.
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