Freed From Behind The Paywall: Too Much Information!
It's easy to get swamped by writing tips. But storytelling all boils down to one thing - what I call the 'double helix'
As I graze languidly through the endless plethora of creative writing courses, degrees, post-grad degrees, evening classes, writing agencies, fiction websites etc (everyone has to have a hobby) I can’t help but think…or rather scream…
TOO MUCH INFORMATION!
Mimeses, excegesis, voice, dialogue, style, backstory, subplot, foreshadowing, beginnings, endings, middles, plot points, reversals, turning points, resolutions and…
AAARGH!
When I am trying to learn tennis, the phrase you can rely on me to shout across the net at my diligent coach is ‘Tell Me Less’.
Because I can only keep one, at most two things, in my poor little head at one time.
Otherwise I get overloaded. And I freeze.
The same applies to writing.
My philosophy as a writing teacher is also, ‘tell them less’.
I have organised a day teaching retreat for Oct 25 at a lovely venue in Sparsholt, Oxfordshire.
https://www.easeretreats.com/storytelling
Please come and join me and take advantage of the chance to connect with other members of the Boot Camp community as well as adding to your toolbox of writing skills and knowledge.
So what is the One Thing you need to think about when writing fiction - that overshadows all the other endless categories of technique?
I call it the Magic Helix - because although it is ‘one thing’ like DNA, it comprises two strands.
The two strands are Character and Plot.
They are one thing because if you change one you change the other.
Plot is what happens.
Character is who it happens to. And what they make happen as a result. And how it changes them. Or asks them to change.
Sounds simple?
It is.
And it isn’t.
Just as the DNA strand looks simple but is very complex, so is the double helix of storytelling.
To clarify how Plot and Character are connected, you can take pretty much any story.
If Prince Hamlet didn’t want to avenge his dead father, there would be no plot to ‘Hamlet’.
If Philip Pirrip didn’t want to marry Estella there would be no plot to ‘Great Expectations’.
If Bridget Jones didn’t want a boyfriend ( and a career ) Bridget Jones’ Diary would be a very different book.
These two elements - Plot and Character - feed off one another and run right through the heart of every scene in every story ( or at least in every competent story ).
So if you are going to be a writer, the Magic Helix is what you need to focus on.
You can worry about all the other stuff later , once you’ve got a story worked out and and a cast of characters that are alive within the story.
Of course, both these elements of writing are covered in creative writing courses and in ‘How To Write’ books.
But not as well as you might think.
Don’t believe me?
I did a test.
To ensure randomness, I posted on my Facebook page for people to send me their favourite examples of books on writing. I then analysed them for character and plot advice.
Here is the surprising result:
BOOKS BY NOVELISTS
‘On Writing’ - Stephen King
Pages on Plot and Character (POPAC) – none ( except for this quote from King ‘ you may wonder where plot is in this. My answer – nowhere’.)
‘ Steering the Craft’. - Ursula Guin
POPAC – none.
‘Reading Like A Writer’ Francine Prose
One chapter ( 30 pages ) on Character
‘Zen and the Art of Writing’ - Ray Bradbury
POPAC - none
‘The Writing Life’ – Annie Dillard
POPAC - none.
‘Becoming a Writer’ ( 1934) Dorothea Brande
Excellent classic – but zero POPAC ( or at least no chapters or sub-chapters on the subject).
‘A Swim in the Pond in the Rain’ George Saunders
Excellent book with some good threads on plot and character, but entirely based around short stories.
BOOKS BY JOURNALISTS, ACADEMICS AND TV/FILM PEOPLE
‘The Writer’s Journey’ Christopher Vogler ( screenwriter)
The entire book is about Plot seen from a Jungian/Joseph Campbell perspective. It is mainly for screenwriters, since this is the template on which ‘Star Wars’ was planned.
‘The Seven Basic Plots’ by Christopher Booker (academic and journalist)
Huge tome, all about plotting, again from a Jungian perspective.
‘Three Uses of the Knife’ by David Mamet ( dramatist)
Plotting again, from one of our greatest playwrights. Very short indeed, rather brilliant.
Into the Woods by John Yorke ( TV producer )
Plot. Superb book - from a TV producer responsible for Eastenders.
The Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell ( anthropologist)
POPAC - 0
‘The Science of Storytelling’ Will Storr ( journalist)
What science tells us about storytelling. Mainly about character. Terrific.
‘22 Steps’ by John Truby (Screenwriter)
Plotting by numbers. Meh.
It seems that the best books on the Magic Helix are not written by novelists, but by TV Producers ( John Yorke ) Journalists ( Will Storr ) Script Doctors ( Robert McKee) or dramatists ( David Mamet) - rather than authors.
Remarkably few books written by novelists and FOR novelists focus centrally on these two aspects of storytelling.
I don’t know why this is.
I suspect partly when it comes to plot novelists shy away from the subject because it is the most frightening one.
One of the few authors who does write about plot is Patricia Highsmith. In her book ‘Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction’ she observes this:
The beginning writer’s most frequent snag may take the form of the question ‘what happens next’. This is a terrifying question which can leave the writer shaking with stage fright”
Very true.
And the lack of teaching of plot also occurs because plot has long been unfashionable in some literary circles.
“Well, fuck the plot! That is for precocious schoolboys. What matters is the imaginative truth.” said Edna O’Brien
“Plots really matter only in thrillers,” declared Martin Amis
“As far as I’m concerned character is everything. I never did see why I had to throw a plot in too” is the view of Anne Tyler.
But , as Richard Skinner, head of the Faber Academy , remarks in his book ‘Fiction Writing’:
“Somehow fiction that is plot-driven has over the years become synonymous with poorer quality, cheapness, contempt even. Malign it if you will, but ignore it at your peril, for plot is the ‘thrust’ of a narrative and its genetic code ( my italics) – without it, a narrative seems lifeless, without energy, inert. A narrative that is weakly plotted feels as though it will never get started and then you think it is never going to end”
So plot is crucial, central, vital and indispensable.
Unless you are James Joyce or Virginia Woolf.
(And you aren’t. )
But a plot is no good without a well-developed character or characters at the heart of it.
Character is much better served by writing teachers and fiction courses.
Even so, I often feel it doesn’t get the central role it deserves ( as you can tell from the list of books I posted earlier in this thread ).
At the moment I am working on a writing book called ‘The One Thing You Need To Know About Writing A Novel ( And There Is Only One )’
(Snappy, huh?)
I won’t be posting the contents of that book on this thread - not all of it anyway - for the purely mercantile reason that no one would then have any reason to buy the book.
But I will be including hints and extracts from time to time that will hopefully whet your appetite for the real thing when it is published next year by Swift Press.
In the meantime, focus your novelistic imaginations on two questions.
What Happens Next?
and
Why Should Anyone Care?
The two questions are intimately connected.
Because whatever happens, if your reader isn’t engaged with your character, then then it doesn’t matter what happens.
And nothing important happens to your character, we’re not going to carry on reading the book.
Before you go, please do consider becoming a paid subscriber. I’m still building that side of the paywall, but at the moment as a paid subscriber you get the chance to get stories and writing assessed and short voice broadcasts from me for my Sunday Supplement. More to the point, without the help of paid subscribers this thread cannot be maintained in the long term. And it cost the same as buying a few coffees a month. Or less if you take the annual subscription. Maybe one Caramel Frappucino. Worth it, surely. And much better for you.
At Ease!
Tim, this is gold dust, thank you for taking the time to compile this & releases from behind your paywall.
Thickie in the back row question: I didn’t get what POPAC is…