Day 18
15 mins planning + 15 mins exercise + 1 hr planned writing
So far, Jacqui has advised against plotting your draft novel in advance. This is a course for people who find it hard to sit down and write, after all, and spending a long time plotting is an excellent way to avoid writing.
She believes that we all have instinctive feel for what makes good stories, having been surrounded by them for so long. We have all internalised enough plot structure for a first draft. [Perhaps this is the truth of the phrase that “every one has one book in them”; people will write one draft and then give up.]
Jacqui is character-first. She feels that writing blind is the way to let characters live and breathe before they are constrained by plot mechanisms. But I have struggled with this during the course. I’ve felt like I was writing without knowing my characters, rather than writing to get to know them. That’s okay. I took this course as a prompt and encouragement, rather than a template to follow. If it makes me more aware of my preferences while stretching me to try other techniques, then that’s a win for me.
However, it’s interesting to read that Jacqui has also taught screenwriting, from which she came to appreciate the benefits of plotting theory. Applied to prose, she now allows conscious plotting in at certain stage of the draft, once she has a strong enough idea of character identity that she can focus consciously on what the story needs.
Her view is that learning plot theory will benefit instinctive work, but shouldn’t replace it. We can pose key questions before we begin, to give direction. But it shouldn’t do away with the creative amble that is the first draft.
Exercise
- Exercise in plot structure using 12 Hollywood-style questions – reflect on the story as a whole.
- 1,500 words aim (I added 15 minutes planning): no specific instruction for scene.
My response
- I did the plot exercise quite quickly, because I wanted to get instinctive responses rather than start over-thinking for hours. I’ll fill in the gaps once I know more.
- Question 3 – What is the central character’s main desire? What is he/she looking to achieve in the course of the story? seems the most important question to me, and one which needs to be (at least partly) established before any writing takes place.
- There was an interesting question about what the “anti-climax” will be at the end of the story — where we think it’s going to end, before it ends another way. To my mind, this is the “twist” ending used in thrillers. Is this question suggesting that it would be all deployed in a general dramatic / comedic setting as well? I think readers like surprises, as long as they’re not cheap and gimmicky. Although there’s nothing wrong with a strong, simple ending.
- Now that I am past the half-way mark in this course, I am aware that I also need to have a strong idea of the characters before I plot. But, I don’t like doing that by writing scenes — I like doing that by thinking and writing outlines. I’m not sure I get much from improvising on the page. I prefer to tell versions of the story in my head, round the imaginary campfire, before I start committing it to paper.
- Bleurgh, writing new scenes is so hard at the moment. I resist it for as long as possible and then when I come to it, I have to force the words out. I am persisting with the story, on the assumption that when I look back on it I’ll be amazed at the brilliance I was unaware of at the time. Sure. Yes. Yes, that’s what will happen.
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