Guest post by Kate Palmer-- "The writing book that changed my life"

There are a handful of books I consider must-reads for anyone serious about getting published. Scene and Structure by Jack M. Bickham tops the list as the one book I credit with improving my writing the most.

Bickham was a student of Dwight V. Swain author of Techniques of the Selling Writer. His methods aren’t that different from Swain’s, and many are exactly the same. Bickham, however, is a gifted teacher.

Scene and sequel are referenced by many an editor and author. Bickham explains that today’s books must be written in scenes to appeal to the modern audience.

First, we must understand that scenes happen in real time. A scene is made up a goal (for the viewpoint character), conflict with about four twists and turns, and ends in a disaster for the viewpoint character. The disaster can take the form of

1.      Yes, she accomplished her goal, but . . . something that makes the situation worse, more complicated, etc.

2.      No, and furthermore . . . something that makes the situation worse, more complicated, etc.

3.      No

So the structure of a scene is:

Goal-Conflict-Disaster

A day before my book was scheduled for typesetting, I received a note from my editor asking if I could use more show and less tell in a particular chapter without adding a lot of words. I read through the chapter and nearly cried. It. Was. Awful. I had apparently skipped it entirely when I’d edited my book for scene and sequel according to Bickham’s structure.

The chapter consisted of several short vignettes which showcased character traits or provided information crucial to the plot. I knew I had to rewrite it according to Bickham’s scene structure to provide the show not tell my editor requested. I ended up merging three of those vignettes into one scene happening in real time with all of the characters present. Far from adding to the word count, this technique helped me to cut HALF of the chapter and still preserve all the critical information.

Each scene is followed by a sequel.

This is where the reader truly gets to know the viewpoint character. My main character is named Eva. My beta readers kept telling me they wanted to be inside Eva’s head more. When I started writing sequels according to Bickham’s method, my readers finally understood Eva’s motivations and actions. The structure of a sequel is:

Emotion-Thought-Decision-Action

This is where we see inside the character’s head. The character has just experienced a setback (the scene ending disaster) and will be feeling emotion first. What type and how long depends on your character. Next, the character will become a bit more rational in that he/she can think about what just happened and consider where to go from here. Naturally, your character will make a decision based on the emotion (first) and thoughts (second) he/she just experienced.

That decision will come in the form of action which will launch your character into the next scene complete with a new goal of what he/she needs to do next. Of course your character will meet with more opposition (conflict) that ends in disaster for the scene goal. Doubtless this will stir up emotions for your character who will then have to consider (think about) his/her circumstances and make a new decision for more action (new scene and goal).

And on it goes until a scene doesn’t end in disaster and some form of resolution is met for your character and you type The End.

I’ve only touched on a couple of key components taught in Scene and Structure by Jack M. Bickham. I highly recommend anyone serious about writing buy his book and read it with a highlighter. At least twice.

Thank you, Kate! For information on Kate Palmer's debut novel, The Guy Next Door,  please see her website, katrinapalmer.com.

Kate began her career as an elementary school teacher, but was soon promoted to full-time mom. She is the mother of six and lives in the country. Her husband is trying to teach her to be a farm girl. She can’t saddle a horse, but she knows how to butcher a chicken. After a day of chasing children, cooking meals, and doing laundry, she likes to escape into a good book.

Choosing the Setting of a Novel

Welcome, Nicki, as she stops by on her blog tour for Three Daves. Until September 30, Three Daves and other school-related titles are only 99 cents in Kindle, Nook, eBook, and ePub as part of the Omnific Publishing Back-to-School sale.  If you’re a book reviewer, A Tale of Many Reviews has opened up sign-ups for a Three Daves paper book tour.

I personally took advantage of this great deal. I have my copy of Three Daves waiting on my Kindle for me to read.  I love the new cover!!

Today Nicki and I discuss how writers choose their settings.

First, Nicki:

I doubt many people think of Central Illinois as a very exciting place.  And the truth is…er, it’s not.  But somehow that didn’t stop both me and the exciting Karen G from choosing the cornfield clustered metropolis as a setting for our stories.  So for my guest post today, we’re going to explain ourselves and tell you just why, out of all the places in the world, Central Illinois was the preferred backdrop for telling our tales. 

My first decision regarding the setting for Three Daves was that it had to be a college campus.  There’s really no other time in life quite like those undergrad days—it’s the perfect combination of  being free from the watchful eye of parents and yet still not having to face up to all the responsibilities of adulthood. 

When describing places, I’m often inspired by where I’ve been—the old “write what you know.”  But also, my alma mater, Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, IL, was the perfect campus off of which to model my fictional Central Illinois University precisely because it was so isolated from any major distractions, keeping the focus on the students and their mutating relationships. 

The mid-size of the EIU campus was also ideal as it allowed for much criss-crossing of paths.  You never know exactly when each Dave’s story has ended—any one of them could pop back in when you least expect it.  But I admit to getting a little stir crazy in that sea of corn, and so I sent my main character on a few side trips.  It wouldn’t be college in the 80s without a spring break in Daytona Beach, after all. ;)   

Okay, Karen—your turn.  Why’d ya do it?

My two novels Uncut Diamonds and House of Diamonds are loosely based on my own life, and they are set in Jacksonville, Illinois, where my husband and I basically started out our married life. I considered fictionalizing the name of the town and then decided not to. Especially in Uncut Diamonds, the town and the houses where the McGills live are almost like characters themselves, so I decided to keep it authentic.

I was born and raised in Central Illinois and although I now live in Utah, the cornfields, huge trees and river country of Downstate Illinois (what everyone calls it to distinguish it from Chicago) are what feels like home to me. I went to college there and so did my sisters. In fact, one of my sisters graduated  from Eastern Illinois University, the setting of Three Daves. When I found out the setting of Nicki's book, I knew I just had to read it!

Setting is really important to me in choosing what books I read. I'll buy a book simply based on the setting! I love to read about places both familiar and foreign to me.

How about the rest of you readers and writers? Writers, how do you choose your settings? And Readers, what kinds of settings do you enjoy in books?

Becoming the Hero-- the Second Plot Point

I should dedicate my current novel to Larry Brooks at Storyfix.com. This guy has been with me during those long midnight hours until early dawn, helping me with story architecture. (Well, not literally, heh heh, since I am happily married.)

Now as I round the bend on 52,000 words, I'm approaching the second plot point (spp). Why is this one so difficult? First plot point--easy. It's where everything changes for the MC. Mid-point milestone? No problem--that's where the curtain parts, new information is revealed and the stakes are raised. Got it. Done and done.

Now I'm at the second plot point, which Brooks defines as: the final injection of new information into the story, after which no new expository information may enter the story. It puts a final piece of narrative information into play that gives the hero or heroine everything he or she needs to become the final catalyst in the story's conclusion.

Got that? Me neither. Sigh. But that word final must mean something. Like, we're getting close to the end? (Disclaimer: this is a long post. You might want to start thinking of Tom Cruise right about now. So clear your mind, think of Tom Cruise, and keep reading.)

Okay, so take it a step at a time. After the spp, no new information can enter the story. Which means that AT the spp, there IS new information that enters, and it's the last bit that CAN enter, and it is information that gives the MC what he or she needs to BE the HERO (which is what I think final catalyst means.) It means no one will come in and save the hero, or he or she wouldn't BE a hero, now would he or she?

Another way Larry puts it: "it's when the chase scene begins." For example, the spp provides information to the MC of who or what or where the villain is-- therefore MC goes after villain (thus the chase scene) and maybe a fight scene, and then MC turns into a HERO. Voila!

Of course I'm way out of my league here, because I'm writing a character-driven novel with no chase scenes. That's okay too, according to Brooks, because the spp allows the hero to go from warrior to self-sacrificing martyr of all that is good: "At least in terms of the dramatic problem the story is portraying." So it doesn't have to be a chase scene, or the MC dangling from the top of the Empire State Building. It might just be the MC giving up something he or she really wants for the greater good.

I keep thinking of Tom Cruise in The Firm (movie). The spp must be when he finds out who's pulling the strings behind the firm and meets with the mafia-- oooh scary!-- but he's the hero now, he pulls it off brilliantly, and we can smell the ending right around the corner-- (another definition of spp according to Brooks). I love that scene in The Firm where Tom Cruise meets with the mafia. It's the last information that's provided, and Tom Cruise wraps it all up. He's a hero, he's a martyr, he's literally awesomely awesome how he pulls that off. I love Tom Cruise.

So as long as I can think of Tom Cruise, I think I can keep track of what the spp is and how it works to create the story architecture. Whew!

Here's the pop quiz. Name the spp in a movie you've seen recently, or a book you've read. Remember--the spp provides crucial information that allows the MC to become a real hero, and after that no new information can be revealed.

Let's see how well you can do! (If this is too difficult, you can just say how much you love Tom Cruise and how he became a hero in the last movie you saw him in, and you will probably have it right. Or Daniel Craig, if you're British.)

Wimp to Warrior

I'm getting through this story structure if it kills me. I wasn't going to write tonight, or blog, but I couldn't sleep and after debating 5 minutes whether to clean house or write-- here I am, ready to tackle Part 3!! The kitchen floor can wait.

According to Larry Brooks, the genius who explains story structure on his website, the Part 3 attack comes after the mid-point milestone: "Part 3 is where the hero literally fights back, hatches a plan, enlists assistance, demonstrates courage, shows initiative. This is when they step up. They evolve from responder to attacker. From wanderer to warrior. And just as importantly, this is where they begin to really fight about against their inner demon."

So I have (finally!) figured out my mid-point, and true to form, my wonderful and quirky main character (I love Marcie McGill!) goes from wimp to warrior. Thus I'm on the right track. Marcie is now taking care of business, stepping it up and becoming an attacker. So I'm deep into Part 3 and headed for the second plot point.

All is not well in the world of my wip, however. Because it's all happening too fast. It needs more scenes and more tension. That's okay, I can do that later. For now, it's enough to know that the crux of the story triangle is in place. And the second plot point is right around the corner--along with my ending.

Word count is only 51,000. No worries. After this draft I'll go back to the beginning--now that the basic story structure is in place-- to fine tune the writing itself while adding scenes. That's the fun part. Wait! It's all fun! Up until the final two words. The End!

THE most important scene in your novel

Back to writing posts, or is it writing writing posts? How about, back to writing about story structure? I've discussed the hook, the set-up, and what your characters have at stake. What comes next is the most important scene. Everything coming before builds up to it, making this scene plausible and believable when it happens, while everything that comes after is a response to it.

It is called The First Plot Point, and it is what Larry Brooks calls "the most important moment in your story." (Link is for his storyfix.com series on story structure.) Brooks says, "Because the First Plot Point is the moment when the story’s primary conflict makes its initial center-stage appearance. It may be the first full frontal view of it, or it may be the escalation and shifting of something already present. In either case, nothing about the story is the same from that moment forward. "

Brooks suggests watching movies to see this story structure displayed before our eyes. Really, really good advice. Especially considering that a novel has so many things happening and going on, and in a character-driven story, the first plot point may be subtle and nearly hidden. Since a movie only has 90 minutes to get it all in, story structure can be obvious once you know what to look for.

Here's how it goes in movies-- you're seeing the main characters in their normal lives, you "meet" them and you find them interesting and likeable. Think of Ghost with Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore. They're moving into this great loft apartment, she's an artist, he's a corporate guy, they're in love (not married), but you recognize this incredible chemistry between them and so of course you want them to be together. You want her to say yes to his repeated marriage proposals.

First plot point: They're mugged late at night in a deserted street, and Patrick Swayze is killed. Everything changes for our two main characters. The rest of the movie is based on this one incident. It is the first plot point.

In my current wip, there are two sisters, with Cindy's story as subplot and Marcie's story as the main plot. When they find out what's wrong with Cindy's baby, that changes everything for Cindy. Marcie is affected and touched by the news, but it's not the first plot point for her story. Marcie's turning point is much later in the story, and it happens so subtly that a reader might miss it. I won't tell you what it is. But it's my job to make sure that this event becomes the single most important moment for Marcie.

If you're having trouble identifying what the first plot point is in your story, here's my advice. Take a break and go to the movies! My husband and I just saw 2012. It was more difficult to identify the first plot point, probably because there are so many characters and the main character doesn't come in until later. But we did it--we identified the point in the movie where everything changes for the main character. Of course, then we had to identify the mid-point milestone and the 2nd plot point as well. 2012 was a challenge, but we figured it out!

Next post I'll discuss the mid-point milestone-- where the curtain parts, new information is revealed, and everyone steps up their game.

Oops! I forgot my question, which is: What book or movie can you recall where the first plot point is either a) so subtle you almost miss it, or b) so obvious you can't miss it?

Chapter by Chapter, until it's done

Have you ever felt paralyzed by the overwhelming task of organizing the novel into something readable? When there's just so much to do and you're not even sure you can pull it off? After three weeks of feeling utterly cowed by the 30,000 not very good words I've got so far on my computer (wip), I decided to quit looking at the big picture and just take it one chapter at a time.

Aha! Now I can deal! The first chapter really isn't too bad, in fact after revisions, it's now the first two chapters. Time to move on to the next one. Maybe halfway through this mess, I'll have a vision of what it might be.

Funny thing, this is how I handle most things in life. When I'm feeling stressed, I forget about the big picture and focus on the little things. Like a friend of mine used to say, "When you don't know what else to do, sweep the floor."

Applying that to writing: "When you don't know what else to do, go back to the first chapter and make it as good as you possibly can." Then on to the second, etc. until before long there's a fresh, new and improved draft.

How do you move on when you're feeling overwhelmed by the work? When there's so much to do that you're paralyzed, and not even sure you capable of it? I mean, quitting isn't an option, is it?

Disclaimer: If you feel an overwhelming desire to comment on this post, it is due to me implementing the little tricks I learned from Tamara's blog, on how to brainwash people into making more comments. Hehehe, bwa ha ha (my evil genius laugh).