I mentioned in a previous post that I get to be one of the Writers in Residence at my public library. Well, part of that is that I get to put together some workshops for our writing community. I had my first one this last Saturday and thought I’d recap it here for you, my online writing community.

We talked about Plot, Character and Dialogue. Basically, I took a whole bunch of useful tools that I’ve gathered from other authors and teachers and compiled them into this. I was going to try and video tape it, to share with you but it was too noisy, so you get a blog post instead.

PLOT

What is Plot?   The story’s sequence of events.
What makes a plot a GOOD plot?  There are lots of things but one of the first things that comes to mind is interesting characters or maybe a  cool premise. Because without a character that we care about, we don’t care what happens, but sometimes if the premise catches our interest we might stick around to see if we start to care about the character/s further into the book.

That’s why the PROMISES writers make in the first third of the book are so important. It sets the tone for the story to come. If we say that we’re going to write a mystery novel but it turns out to really be a romance, we’re breaking a promise to the reader and we lose their trust. That’s not to say we can’t have great plot twists but we have to learn how to hint at it along the way, to give the right promises.

A plot twist should be surprising yet inevitable.

So, where do we begin when coming up with a good PLOT? There’s no one right way to write a novel or tell a story. Some people plan everything out: they make detailed outlines, character profiles, pages of world building. Others just sit down and start writing. But EVERYONE needs to have plot, something to tell.

A great place to begin is with an IDEA.

What THEME/s do you want to weave into your story. I recommend making a spider-web of ideas and themes to keep in mind while you outline or write. If you were in Flagstaff, you could pop by and grab a template but you can just make your own. Is your main theme: Redemption? Maybe some relating themes are forgiveness or making the right apologies. These can help you discover your plot and subplots.

 We, also, briefly talked about the Hollywood, 3 Act Structure. If you would like to know more about this pick up a copy of Save the Cat! Writes a Novel. The Last Writing Novel Book You’ll Ever Need by Jessica Brody. But keep in mind that there are more than one way to write a novel. Find out how other cultures structure their stories.

As a pantser, myself, I like to use the Yes/but, No/and sequences to help keep my story moving along. Yes, my character found the key/But the door disappeared. or No, my character didn’t make it out of the maze before the sun set/And they need to find a way to survive till the morning. You can think about these scenes as positive and negative scenes. + = Character made progress towards their goal. – = Character has another set back.

That leads us to talking about the CHARACTER.

Your Main Character (MC) should have a Hidden Need (Nancy Rue). This is something your MC needs to learn by the end of the novel whether they know it or not and most often, it ties into the main theme. For example, Will Jane Austin overcome her prejudices and marry Mr. Darcy? In the beginning she doesn’t even know she has prejudices or that they are a bad thing. But by the end she realizes her mistake and makes the right choice.

You can think of it as a FLAW she had to overcome.

In addition to the Hidden Need, every character in your story has a DREAM (Elizabeth Boyle) See, also, one of my previous posts dedicated to this. They have wants/desires/goals.

In a Boy meets Girl story:

Denial = she’s not the girl for me

Resistance = I’m going to do what I want to do

Exploration = Okay, maybe we’ll go on a date or two

Acceptance = I was wrong and I’m in love with her

Manifestation = start a long term relationship or getting married

Other tools to help develop your characters are Brandon Sanderson’s SLIDING SCALES

1. Likability (0-10)

2. Pro-activity (0-10)

3. Competence (0-10)

Sherlock is a 10 on the competence scale but only a 2 or 3 on the likability scale. Sam Gamgee is a 10 on the likability scale but a 2 or 3 on the competence scale. Katniss Everdeen is a 10 on the Pro-activity scale, she will not hesitate to do what needs to happen but low on the likability scale. At least, she starts off that way. Characters can slide up and down the scales by the things they do or don’t do.

Sometimes it happens in their DIALOGUE.

When you are crafting dialogue, it’s important to remember M.I.C.R.O. in descending importance (Brandon Sanderson).

Motive is the most important thing to remember. What do each of the characters want? Get inside their heads, remember their DREAMS. That will help you make a realistic dialogue. Why is he/she/they telling us what they’re saying? There has to be a reason behind their words.

Individuality is next. You should be able to tell who’s speaking without the dialogue tags just by their word choices or dialect or DREAMS. Some people are aggressive when speaking and others or passive. Sentence length, linguistic markers and rhythms of speaking help make them unique.

Conflict. There should be conflict throughout the whole story but it is important to note it in their dialogue too. What kind of tension is between the characters speaking? This can be indicated without being said. Intersperse body language into your dialogue to help you show the conflict instead of telling.

Realism*********** As an author, you are the one to decide how realistic you want your dialogue to be. That being said, if you are too realistic, your readers might get bored. But feel free to go the other way. Terry Pratchett, for example, has extremely unrealistic dialogue.

Objective of the scene should be the last thing you think about when making good dialogue. Yes, you want to make sure that you achieved your goal in your scene but if it’s the most important thing in your dialogue, it’s going to feel like you’re telling instead of showing. Your readers are pretty smart.

Then, there are 4 Maxims that I got from Robert Wiersema:

1. Dialogue is not conversation. By conversation, I mean little “c” conversation: “Hi Bill, how are you doing?”

2. Dialogue is not monologue, it’s in the name and involves more than one person.

3. Dialogue is focused but not forced, needs to develop around ideas, controlled but not forced. Don’t want preachiness. We have to see both or all 20 sides of the topic at hand.

4. Dialogue is interactive, it’s a process of exchanging ideas, creating meaning between the speakers, a dance of ideas.

Keeping all of this in mind, write a scene where the plot moves forward and the characters get closer to their goals through action and dialogue. Happy Writing! What tips and tools do you have concerning Plot, Character, and Dialogue? Comment Below.