Friday After Hours Forum

Elements of Story

March 6, 2009

 

Mary Rosenblum: Nice to see you all.  I wanted to talk about elements of story, because often these basic topics get taken for granted.  And a lot of novice writers really aren't sure what they are. The seemingly simplest concepts -- such as 'show, don't tell' can turn out to be surprisingly complex.

What makes a good story?

What makes a story different from, say, a diary?
Conflict?
Mary Rosenblum: Yes, conflict.  And resolution, most of the time, although in the literary genre it's not always necessary.
Something that grabs your attention and keeps it the entire time
Action, dialogue.
A tale that stimulates either emotionally or intellectually - the best pull off both!
Mary Rosenblum: These are all aspects of story telling -- that engagement, Pokeefe mentions, action, good dialogue That's how we make readers see the same scene we're seeing as we imagine the story. Essentially what makes a story a story, rather than an account of your day, is that conflict and resolution.  It can include characters that we care deeply about, or it can include a clever idea and characters that are implied rather than developed fully. But the conflict is always there.  And it can be very subtle.  It can be nothing more than a character's need to realize something. Conflict can be external...the main character has to cross the veldt to safety and a pride of lions is stalking him.
As people we want to be problem solvers we get satisfaction from that
Mary Rosenblum: There you go, darcee. Maybe that's what makes us human rather than merely primates, eh? Mystery is a very popular genre, after all. So we have that external conflict...the main character must overcome an obstacle
It can be also, an inner conflict, fighting to get out..
Mary Rosenblum: Exactly, granddad.  It can be based on an imbalance in the main character.  This character has an internal problem and unless he/she can overcome it, that character will continue to be flawed.
Everyone has inner conflict.  Can't enter a crowded room, afraid people will stare.
Mary Rosenblum: Everyone does, darcee. And even if your story is driven by a clear external conflict, by including that internal conflict as well, even if it's secondary to your main, external conflict, you enrich the characterization. Because, as you said, everyone has an internal conflict.
Conflict is conflict is conflict, isn’t a story about how the Main Character handles the conflict?
Mary Rosenblum: Jesty, that's exactly right. And that's where some novice stories fail.  The main character doesn't resolve the conflict. Someone else does. The cavalry arrives. Then the story is flat.  If you think about it, isn't life full of things that go wrong and we can't fix? Conflicts we never resolve? That's why we love fiction. The universe can work the way we WANT it to work in a fiction story.
Deus ex machine

Mary Rosenblum: Yeah, JAM. Deux ex Machina didn't work all that well in the Greek classics and it works less well today.
So the main character has to change and overcome their inner and outer conflicts
Mary Rosenblum: That's it in a nutshell, darcee.  And you've touched on the real central kernel of 'story'.  Character change. If your character goes swinging thrugh your pages, chopping off the heads of offending bad guys and is no different at the end than he was on page one, you really don't have a story. You have more of comic strip.
Although sometimes the MC is overcome.
But how far is too far in bringing in the cavalry? How much can we expect the reader to suspend their disbelief?
Mary Rosenblum: Well, Claryce, you have to build a plausible universe. But that's your JOB as writer. If you want to get your MC out of a tough situation, you have to do the creative sweating to figure out how to make it happen plausibly.
Could be fair to call in the cavalry if you foreshadow it?
Mary Rosenblum: Not if it keeps your MC from solving his own problem, Jesty.  They can sure arrive as backup.
Give your MC the tools to rescue themselves.
Ooppsss... good point.
Right. Some books I've read go so far out on the limb to resolve the story I feel cheated at the end.
Mary Rosenblum: And your character can do it barely. In lots of fiction, the main character barely makes it through that resolution alive. And this is where characterization comes in. The more real your characters are, the more believable the story is, and the less you're likely to make it unbelievable.

 So the three basic elements of story are conflict, resolution, and character change.  And this can be effected in endless ways, from very action driven stories to deep character stories that mostly take place in quiet settings.
Do secondary characters need an internal conflict?
Mary Rosenblum: Well, rjb, the more 'real' you make every character, the more real your story is. There's a point of diminishing returns. If you constantly divert from your main story to deal with secondary characters you're going to make your plot arc 'blurry' and weaken your story over all. But if you can give us a brief glimpse of character conflicts in your secondary characters, those characters will seem more real.

 This is where story and characterization merge. The more real your characters, the more they themselves will bring conflict to the story. After all, someone already said it tonight, everybody has internal conflicts.

Can't secondary characters be characterized by their supporting actions?
Mary Rosenblum: Exactly, Jesty. It's a huge mistake to do omniscient POV and pop into everybody's head, most of the time. But if you have a surly stable boy and later on, the POV notices him getting spurned by a housemaid, and then the MC uses that knowledge to get the kid to do something for him, you've given us a glimpse of that stable boy's issues and made it relevant to the plot.
I'm reading a book right now where there are so many characters with so much conflict it's almost annoying and chaotic
I think too many characters make a story confusing.  
How many pov's is to many? 3?
Yeah, I’m reading one with so much head hopping it make s me feel the author is just plain lazy and cheating
Mary Rosenblum: In short fiction, you're usually best off with a single POV. You can make more work, but it is hard to pull off. Rjb, in terms of novels, generally you're going to use more than one POV if you're writing in third person.
Ah  but those books are often the most exciting - studying how the author weaves them all together and discovering why all those character's conflicts were written into the tale is very satisfying, Claryce. For me, at least
Mary Rosenblum: Jason, those stories are, but only when the author has enough skill to make that number of characters vivid and real and to keep readers from either losing plot threads or forgetting who is whom.
If the reader has to back up to determine whose POV it is, you've lost the reader.
Mary Rosenblum: For a novice writer, a cast of three, four, or five main characters is going to be difficult to do well.  Not impossible, just hard. It is VERY wise to use a single POV in a chapter, or at least switch POV at the scene break.  It's way too easy to confuse readers when you shift POV in the middle of a scene.
I’m really annoyed, I chose one of the most published romantic suspense authors and she hops in and out of peoples head from paragraph to paragraph.
Mary Rosenblum: I hate to say it, Darcee, but popular does not always mean good writing. It means popular. Sometimes it's good, too, sometimes it's not very well written. But that's how the market works.
Paragraph-to-paragraph POV is extremely hard for a reader to follow. that would be a quick way to have me set the book down.
Mary Rosenblum: That’s going to make most people set the book down, Jason. When you realize you're in the wrong 'head' you have to reread. It's highly annoying.

Another element of story, beside our basic three of conflict, resolution, and character change is what I call 'story first'.  That means, the story is ultimately most important. Does your beloved character not serve the story? Then he/she does not belong in this story.  You love that scene but it doesn't serve the story? Take it out.
Doesn't a story with, let's say, a team of 4 characters working together as our protagonist, still have one that is the 'main character'? There is usually one predominant voice. In that case, wouldn't the other 3 be considered secondary?
Mary Rosenblum: Usually, yes, Jason.  It's wise to do that.  Think of reader engagement as a dollar.  If you have one main character, he/she gets a dollar's worth of engagement from the readers. If you have two main characters, they each get fifty cents worth of engagement. Now if your engagement is divided enough, that story sure had better be plot driven. The readers aren't going to care enough about the characters to make it work.
Good point on the 'story first' - and what's often overlooked is that applies to character- and plot- driven tales.
Mary Rosenblum: It applies to all fiction, Jason.

Does the antagonist get a share of the dollar?
Mary Rosenblum: Depends, Charie.  Generally readers don't engage with antagonists the same way they do with protagonists.
but you need to give the protaganist motivation or he's just a cartoon.

Mary Rosenblum: That is certainly true!  And hard to do well. 

Well, here's one of those things we bandy about a lot and don't define very often: Character driven and plot driven fiction. Do you really know what the distinction is? And of course, it's a spectrum, rather than an absolute dividing line.
Can't the engagement be more on the Passing a car wreck variety fascination?
Mary Rosenblum: That's the plot driven, charie. The idea is cool, the twist ending is cool, it's funny, it's scary...  the characters are there to make the plot work, but it's not the people that matter its the cool/funny/scary plot that keeps you reading.  A lot of 'twist end' short fiction, like the O'Henry stories are more plot driven than character driven.  The characters are vivid but not particularly deep. It can be that 'car-wreck fascination'.  

Character driven stories are stories where it is the success or failure of the MC to resolve his or her personal issues that supplies the power of the story.  plot is there to force the character to confront his issues.
Then there's the setting- and theme- driven as well. I enjoyed Card's write ups of them. In a nutshell, the story cannot do what it does without whatever is driving it. The setting-driven story just won't work the same in a different place; the character-driven without that character, etc.
Gone with the Wind
Mary Rosenblum: Well, most books are weak on setting. And when you get a book that is equally strong on all three legs of the tripod, you tend to get a classic. To Kill a Mockingbird is a perfect example. You have some fiction in the SF universe that tends to be setting driven.  Frank Herbert's 'Dune' is a good example. But it's pretty rare that setting is the main driver of a story. Beryl Markham's West With The Night is one. That's memoir rather than fiction.
Is the tripod, plot character and setting?
Mary Rosenblum: Yes , Laina, it is.  Claryce, I'd say Gone with the Wind is one, too.
The West in any good western.
Tolkein's fantasy world.
Mary Rosenblum:  Good example, Charie. That is a good example of a story that is mostly setting and characterization. And it's something that doesn't work very often, but Tolkien pulled it off quite thoroughly.
Plot vs character driven - is one better than the other or does it not matter?
Mary Rosenblum: Laina they can both work just fine. You have to have a powerful or compelling plot if that's going to carry your story.  I see way too many novice fantasy stories with yet another endless quest for something valuable and magical and the Usual Cast of Characters. Those do not work. You can get away with a 'usual' plot if your characters are vivid, unique, and that means real. And, since you're all working hard at breaking in, the slush pile is woefully short in character driven fiction.  Characterization is really difficult.
Is it possible that plot and character are 50/50 and does that work?
Mary Rosenblum: Well, Laina, sure. As I said, it's a spectrum. Plot is at one end, character at the other. Most stories fall in the middle somewhere.
What is the slush pile?
Mary Rosenblum: That's the pile of manuscripts sent in by novice or new writers uninvited.

How do you know that the slush pile needs more character driven fiction?
Mary Rosenblum: Charie, I know because I know a lot of people who read those slush piles.

 So it would be good to "hook" the slush pile reader with a great character on page one?
Mary Rosenblum: Charie, you'd better just hook the readers period! But yes, if the character is real, you're going to get noticed.

How do you know if a story is plot driven or character driven?
Mary Rosenblum: DLB, can you put different characters in this story and it'll still work?  Then it’s plot driven.  In a character driven story, the story only works with these particular characters. If you could send any bunch of people on this adventure, it's a plot story.
plot driven would be more you suspense/mystery genre?
Mary Rosenblum: Generally, yes, Laina, although the mystery genre demands rich and complex characters.  The suspense/thriller genre is less interested in depth of character since the plot does tend to dominate. They want vivid and interesting characters.
Would historicals tend to be more setting?
Mary Rosenblum: Very likely.  Depends on the author. There, readers are particularly interested in the setting.

So to wrap it up, the main elements of story are conflict, resolution, and character change.  And there are a million ways to handle that trio of elements.