Whether you write fiction, memoir, nonfiction or poetry, your chosen form must have a shape that draws readers in.
Writing Tip for Today: Here are some tips for sculpting your story’s shape:
Climbing the Mountain
If you’re a fiction or memoir writer, you’re probably aware that your story or book-length work must start with a question or promise and then fulfill that promise with rising action, culminating in a climax, then falling action and resolution. You’ve no doubt heard about story arc and building tension through conflict. But what does that mean?
Think of your Main Character (MC) standing at the foot of a tall mountain. If the story’s promise is that MC wants to summit that mountain, the writer must show the MC trying, failing, trying some more and eventually answering the question: will he or won’t she summit?
If your MC has all the latest climbing gear and swiftly and with little trouble gets to the top, the story isn’t delivering on the promise. Most stories must show MC overcoming obstacles along the way and in the process, growing and changing in some way. A good story is the process of trying, failing, trying some more and finally facing the highest hurdle of all at the climax.
Keeping It Real
Reality and Story are different, but not in the ways you might think. In life, we give up when things are too hard. We often meet serendipity—someone bails us out at the perfect moment. In Story, the MC should have as little “help” as possible. An MC who shrugs and gives up or who accomplishes a goal easily can’t satisfy readers.
Consider how writers use dialogue. In real life, we natter and chat and shoot the breeze. In Story, such idle talk usually bores readers and tends to stall the forward movement. Keep your dialogue tight and delete all chit-chat and niceties. However, be sure to make your dialogue SOUND as if it’s real life. That is, avoid formal and wooden dialogue that no real person would say.
In real life, we often hide emotion and put on a façade that all is well. Readers of Story demand to be let into your MC’s thoughts and feelings as he/she works to overcome obstacles to the goal. You can use your Point of View character’s inner life with thoughts and feelings which illustrate the conflict at hand.
Reality and Story are different, but not in the ways you might think.
Tension and Conflict
Your story doesn’t need a sword fight to show conflict and tension. Unless you need an actual duel, conflict and tension can be much less obvious but no less effective. Use psychological and emotional tension to illustrate conflict and build tension. Let the physical scenes of actual events reflect a growing tension as each part unfolds.
Concentrate on inner and outer conflict. The inner conflict might be that the story goal is at odds with your MC’s emotions. A person recovering from a broken love affair might have vowed never again in her mind. Yet, his heart yearns for just that. Use your MC’s conflicted emotions and thoughts to build tension.
In most stories, tension and conflict must be balanced between inner thoughts and feelings and what happens in the story world. Stay too long in the actual events without the inner emotions and the story may seem shallow. Stay too long with the psychological and emotional inner life of MC, and the story might become too heavily introspective. Aim to write scenes which have a good mixture of inner and outer conflict.
