Narration Narration is the use of @ written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience.” Narration encompasses a set of techniques through which the creator of the story presents their story, including: «Narrative point of view: the perspective (or type of personal or non-personal "Iens") through which a story is communicated «Narrative voice: the format (or type presentational form) through which a story is communicated «Narrative time: the grammatical placement of the story's time-frame in the past, the present, or the future ‘A narrator is a personal character or a non-personal voice that the creator (author) of the story develops to deliver information to the audience, particularly about the plot. The narrator may be ‘a voice devised by the author as an anonymous, non-personal, or stand-alone entity; as the author herself7himself as a character; or as some other fictional or non-fictional character appearing and participating within their own story. The narrator is considered participant if he/she is a Character within the story, and non-participant if he/she is an implied character or an omniscient or semi-omniscient being or voice that merely relates the story to the audience without being involved in the actual events. Some stories have multiple narrators to illustrate the storylines of Various characters at the same, similar, or different times, thus allowing a more complex, non- singular point of view. Narration encompasses not only who tells the story, but also how the story is told (for example, by using stream of consciousness or unreliable narration). In traditional literary narratives (such as novels, short stories, and memoirs), narration is a required story element; in other types of (chiefly non-literary) narratives, such as plays, television shows, video games, and films, narration is merely optional. Narrative point of view spective describes the position of the narrator, that is, the 0 the story being told." It can be thought of as a camera Iso look back inside the narrator's mind, Narrative point of view or narrative per character of the storyteller, in relation t mounted on the narrator's shoulder that can al First-person Main article: First-person narrative Ina first-person narrative, the story is revealed through a narrator who is also a character within the story, so that the narrator reveals the plot by referring to this viewpoint character with forms of "I" or, when plural, "we". Often, the first-person narrative is used as a way to directly convey the deeply internal, otherwise unspoken thoughts of the narrator. Frequently, the narrator is the protagonist, whose inner thoughts are expressed to the audience/seader, even ifnot to anyof the other characters. This character can be further developed through individual narrative style. First-person narrations may be told like third-person (or omniscient) one, inthe vice ofa person directly undergoing the events in the story without being aware of conveying thet experience to readers; alternatively, the narrator may be conscious of telling the story toa given audience, perhaps at a given place and time, for a given reason. A conscious narrator, a a heen participant of past events, is an imperfect witness by definition, unable to fully see and comprehend events in their entirety as they unfurl, not necessarily objective in their inner thoughts or sharing them fully, and furthermore may be pursuing some hidden agenda, Other forms include temporary first-person narration as a story within a story, wherein a narcator or character observing the telling of a story by another is reproduced in full, temporarily and without interruption shifting narration to the speaker. The first-person narrator can also be the focal character. The first-person narrator is always a character within his/her own story (whether the protagonist or not). This viewpoint character takes action, makes judgments and expresses opinions, thereby not always allowing the audience to comprehend the other characters’ thoughts, feelings, or perceptions as much as the narrator's own, We become aware of the events and characters of the story through the narrator's views and knowledge."! In some cases, the narrator gives and withholds information based on their own experience. It is an important task for the reader to determine as much as possible about the character of the narrator in order to decide what “really” happens. For example: T could picture it. I have a rotten habit of picturing the bedroom scenes of my friends. We went out to the Cafe Napolitain to have an aperitif and watch the evening crowd on the Boulevard. — Ernest Hemingway as the protagonist Jake Barnes, The Sun Also Rises Some stories are told in first person plural ("we"). Examples are the short stories Twenty-Six Men and a Girl by Maxim Gorky and A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, The Treatment of Bibi Haldar by Jhumpa Lahiri, The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides, During the Reign of the Queen of Persia by Joan Chase, Our Kind by Kate Walbert, J, Robot by Isaac Asimov, We Didn't by Stuart Dybek, and Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris." There can also be multiple co-principal characters as narrator, such as in Robert A. Heinlein's The Number of the Beast. The first chapter introduces four characters, including the initial narrator, who is named at the beginning of the chapter. The narrative continues in subsequent chapters with a different character explicitly identified as the narrator for that chapter. Other characters later introduced in the book also have their "own" chapters where they narrate the story for that chapter. The story proceeds in linear fashion, and no event occurs more than once, i.e. no two narrators speak "live" about the same event. The narrator can be the protagonist (e.g., Gulliver in Gulliver's Travels), someone very close to him who is privy to his thoughts and actions (Dr. Watson in Sherlock Holmes stories), or an ancillary character who has little to do with the action of the story (such as Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby). Narrators can report others’ narratives at one or more removes. These are called Lf py: xd, the narrator in Wuthering Heights by Emil "frame narrators": examples are Mr. Lockwoo i Heights by Emily cram. and the unnamed narrator in Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Skilled writers choose arcs naratives, in keeping with the narrator's character, to an arbitrary degree, from ever so Sight to extreme. For example, the aforementioned Mr. Lockwood is quite naive, of which fact [taneously rather pompous, and recounting a combination of stories, he appears unaware, simul t t experiences, and servants’ gossip. As such, his character is an unintentionally very unreliable farrator, and serves mainly to mystify, confuse, and ultimately leave the events of Wuthering Heights open to a great range of interpretations. Other types of narrating characters may greatly affect what the reader sees of events and how, intentionally or unintentionally, in any number of ways. Character weaknesses and faults, such as tardiness, cowardice, or vice, may leave the narrator unintentionally absent or unreliable for certain key events. Specific events may further be colored or obscured by a narrator's background, since non-omniscient characters must by definition be laypersons and foreigners to some circles, and limitations such as poor eyesight and illiteracy may also leave important blanks. Unstable or malevolent narrators can also lie to the reader. In autobiographical fiction, the first person narrator is the character of the author (with varying degrees of historical accuracy). The narrator is still distinct from the author and must behave like any other character and any other first person narrator. Examples of this kind of narrator include | Jim Carroll in The Basketball Diaries and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. in Timequake (in this case, the first-person narrator is also the author). In some cases, the narrator is writing a book — "the book in your hands" — and therefore he has most of the powers and knowledge of the author. } Examples include The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, and The Curious Incident of the Dog | in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. A rare form of first person is the first person omniscient, in which the narrator is a character in the story, but also knows the thoughts and feelings of all the other characters. It can seem like \ third person omniscient at times. A reasonable explanation fitting the mechanics of the story's world is generally provided or inferred, unless its glaring absence is a major plot point. Two notable examples are The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, where the narrator is Death, and The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, where a young girl, having been killed, observes, from some post-mortem, extracorporeal viewpoint, her family struggling to cope with her disappearance. Typically, however, the narrator restricts the events relayed in the narrative to those that could reasonably be known. Novice writers may make the mistake of allowing elements of omniscience into a first-person narrative unintentionally and at random, forgetting the inherent human limitations of a witness or participant of the events. Second-person Main article: Second-person narrative The second-person narrative mode, in which the narrator refers to him- or herself as 'you' in a way that suggests alienation from the events described, or emotional/ironic distance, is less common in fiction, though it's often used in the short fiction of Lorrie Moore and Junot Diaz.Pethaps the most prominent example of this mode in contemporary literature is Jay Mclnemey's Bright Lights, Big City. In this novel, the second-person narrator is observing his own out-of- contro! life, unable to cope with the trauma he keeps hidden from readers for most of the book, the death of his mother: You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time of the moming, But here you are, and you cannot say the terrain is entirely unfamiliar, although the details are fuzzy. You are at a nightclub talking to a girl with a shaved head. The club is either Heartbreak or the Lizard Lounge. All might become clear if you could just slip into the bathroom and do a little more Bolivian Marching Powder. Then again, it might not. A small voice inside you insists that this epidemic lack of clarity is a result of too much of that already. —Jay McInerney, Bright Lights, Big City The use of "you" as an addressee (as in poetry and song) is employed in the "Choose Your Own Adventure” and "Fighting Fantasy" series of books that were popular in the 1980s. It is also usual in interactive fiction, where the reader controls at least some of the protagonist's actions. Third-person Third-person narration provides the greatest flexibility to the author and thus is the most. commonly used narrative mode in literature. In the third-person narrative mode, each and every character is referred to by the narrator as "he", "she", "it", or "they", but never as "I" or “wer (first-person), or "you" (second-person). In third-person narrative, it is clear that the narrator is an unspecified entity or uninvolved person who conveys the story and is not a character of any kind within the story."! ; If the narrator of the story is not present, or is present but is not the protagonist, and the story told is about someone else and is not the narrator's own story, the story is narrated by He/She perspective." The third-person modes are usually categorized along two axes. The first is the subjectivity/objectivity axis, with third person subjective narration describing one or more character's feelings and thoughts, and third person objective narration not describing the feelings or thoughts of any characters. The second axis is the omniscient/limited axis, a distinction that refers to the knowledge available to the narrator. A third person omniscient narrator has knowledge of all times, people, places, and events, including all characters’ thoughts; a limited narrator, in contrast, may know absolutely everything about a single character and every piece of knowledge in that character's mind, but the narrator's knowledge is "limited" to that character—that is, the narrator cannot describe things unknown to the focal character.Your Plot, Step by Step by Melanie Anne Phillips creator StoryWeaver, co-creator Dramatica Here are some general guidelines to help you structure your story's plot, step by step. Act One Beginning The beginning of act one is the teaser. It may or may not have anything to do with the actual plot of the story. This is where you get the feel of the story and the feel of the \ fain character. A good example is in Raiders of the Lost Ark. In the very beginning Indiana Jones replaces a statue with a bag of sand and then gets chased through a lot of | booby traps. This actually has nothing to do with the story to come, but it sets the tone and grips the audience. Act One Middle ‘The middle of act one is the set up of the situation and goal. Even though you should reveal the goal in this section, you don't need to have the protagonist accept the goal. If your goal requires a lot of preparation before starting on the quest, then you might want to have the acceptance of the goal by the end of this section and the preparation in the next section. In contrast, if your protagonist needs to think or do something before accepting the goal and/or there is no preparation needed for the goal, then the acceptance of the goal can happen in the end section of the first act instead. Act One Ending By the end of this section everything should be ready to embark on the quest. All preparation, all acceptance is completed. Just as when you are going on vacation you turn off all the lights, pet the dogs, lock the doors, put the suitcases in the car, get in the car, put on your seatbelt, start the car and drive off out of sight... all this is the first act. The second act begins with the car on the road. ‘Act Two Beginning This section presents the beginning of the quest. It is the start of the actual journey. In many stories, this is an upbeat or at least hopeful time. Everything goes as. planned. Keep in mind that throughout act two the difficulties in achieving the goal are constantly increasing. This is the section before that starts to happen; when it seems as if the journey will be a piece of cake. Act Two Middle This is possibly the most important section you will write. Tt is t middle of your story. he midpoint, the exact tion, a special problem, often ‘Act two has in it, either in the this second or the end sec! and in so-doing the called a "plot twist.” The stakes are raised in an unexpected form, whole picture is changed. So’In an action story it will change what the characters think they need to d goal more difficult to achieve. In a character piece, this problem makes itmore dite i to resolve their personal problems; it complicates them. mene Now you have a choice to make. If your plot twist will require reorganization of by the characters, then it should be in this section. But if the plot twist simply sends things in a new direction, then it should be at the end of the next section. Act Two Ending Now you have either put the ground shaking problem in the previous middle section, or you are planning to put it in this one. Remember that if your problem requires reorganization of material or the scheme, then the problem should have been in the last section leaving this section for reorganization and/or recovery. If you want to put the problem in this section, make sure the problem does not require reorganization, So you can have act two go out with a bang if you drop your plot twist right at the end of this section. Or, if the the bang was in the middle section you can have this section (and act two) go out with a whimper. Now don't let the name fool you, a whimper can be very effective. As an example, suppose in the middle of Act Two a natural disaster occurs as the Plot Twist bang. All the food the group has with them is scattered to the winds. After this disaster, all the food that can be found must be found. The end section of act two in this story would involve finding the food, patching bags, rounding up lost horses, fixing what's broken and so on, recovering. At the very last, everything is ready to go, and the man who is carrying the food sees a last grain of rice on a rock, picks it up, Grops it in a bag, gets on his horse and leaves. That moment with the single grain of rice is the whimper. It ends the act with a subtle sense of closure and the anticipation that Act Three will begin with a new sense of purpose for the characters. Act Three Beginning Act three is the buildup to and, of course, the climax itself. All the plot points in the story have been set up in the first act, developed in the second, and the third act is where everything comes together for better or for worse. The beginning of the third act is a response to the plot twist of the second act. If you put the twist in the middle of the second act, then the characters spent the remaining part of act two recovering from that set back and getting ready to start again. In such a case, the beginning of act three feels like the beginning of the quest all over again - with renewed resolve. If you put the twist at the end of the second act, then it dropped like a bombshell onde i hieve. In this case, changed the whole purpose of what the characters are trying to act three begins with the characters setting off in a whole new direction than at the beginning of the quest. either way, the reader/audience should be made to know that this is the start of the final "15h toward the ultimate climax or reckoning.Act Three Middle Throughout the sto ry, although the Prot: conflict, there hi rotagonist and Antagoni conte, Sreme have always been extenuating aPnurnstanes Wat pevennen or ig . In the middle of act three, these ci at prevented an ultimate until ircumstances, til nothing more stands between these two principal characters wor one OY OMe? At the end of this section it is clear that a final face-off is inevitable. Act Three Ending av pele cima hye eae itis where the antagonist and protagonist meet for the final : een leading up to this moment, with rising tensi suspense. All the stops are removed and the momentum cannot be turned aside, When the Protagonist and Antagonist meet, they start with the small stuff, sizing each other up. This is true whether it is an action-oriented story or a character study. The dynamics are the same - only the weapons they use are different. In action stories there will be physical weapons. In character stories, the weapons will be emotional. In stories about a single character grappling with personal problems, his or her demons come to bear, slowly but directly, building to the final breaking point. In all kinds of stories, this section builds as the two camps (and their followers) pull stronger and stronger weapons out of their arsenal, since the smaller ones have proven ineffective. “The battle quickly becomes more heated, more imperative, and riskier. Eventually both the antagonist and protagonist have employing all the weapons they have at their disposal except one. They each retain a trump card, one last weapon that they have not yet used for fear that it might backfire or take them down along with their opponent. With the use of this last weapon the battle will be decided, one way or another. The final moments of the ending of act three might take one of two directions: 1. The weapon (physical or emotion) is employed and the results are seen as the smoke clears. 2. The weapon is employed and the result is left in limbo until the conclusion (epilog, dénouement or "wrap-up") Conclusion ‘The conclusion is the aftermath and epilog. The climax is over and it's time to take stock Of all that has happened. The conclusion is both a cool down period for the reader/audience after the excitement of the climax and @ wraP UP of loose ends. it 2 Was the effort to achieve How did it all turn out? What was gained and what was lost? 1 the goal successful or not. Or, what the Goal only partially achieved, and was it enough? Ina sense, the conclusion is a new “set-up.” Just as the ‘opening of your story set-up the way things are when the problem begins, the conclusion sets up how things are, now that it is over.What kind of new situation has come into being through the changes wrought by the climax?Writing The Perfect Scene Having trouble making the scenes in your novel work their magic? In this article, 'll show you how to write the “perfect” scene. Maybe you think it’s impossible to write the perfect scene. After all, who can choose every word perfectly, every thought, every sentence, every paragraph? What does perfection mean, anyway? Honestly, I don’t know. Perfection is in the eye of the beholder. Style is a matter of taste. But structure is pretty well understood. Maybe you can’t write the perfectlystyled scene. But you can write the perfectly structured scene. And that’s a whale of a lot better than writing a badly structured scene. The Two Levels of Scene Structure A scene has two levels of structure, and only two. They are: The large-scale structure of the scene The small-scale structure of the scene This may seem obvious, but by the end of this article, i hope to convince you that it’s terribly profound. If you then want to fling large quantities of casa at me in gratitude, please don’t. Pd really rather have a check. With plenty of zeroes. 1 am goiag to steal insights from Dwight Swain’s book, Techniques of the Selling Writer. This is quite simply the finest book ever written on how to write fiction. If you don’t have this book, you are robbing yourself blind. I will be giving you the high points in this article, but there is really no substitute for reading the book and digesting it. Before we begin, we need to understand how we keep score. How do we know what perfection is? The answer is based on understanding your reader's motivation for reading. Your reader is reading your fiction because you provide him or her with a powerfull emotional experience. If you’re writing a romance, you must create in your reader the illusion that she is falling in love herself. If you're writing a thriller, you must create in your reader the illusion that he is in mortal danger and has only the tiniest chance of saving his life (and all of humanity). If you're writing a fantasy, you must create in your reader the illusion that she is actually in another World where all is different and wonderful and magical. And so on for all the other genres. Ifyou fail to create these emotions in your reader, then you have failed. If you create these emotions in your reader, then you have succeeded. The better you create the desired emotional experience in your reader, the better your fiction. Perfection in writing comes when you have created the fullest possible emotional experience for your reader. Large-Scale Structure of a Scene The large-scale structure of a scene is extremely simple. Actually, there are two possible choices you can make for your scene structure. Dwight Swain calls these two choices “scenes” and “sequels”. This is horrendously confusing, since both of these are what most ordinary people call scenes. In what follows, I’m going to capitalize these terms, calling them Scenes and Sequels. That is your signal that [’'m using Swain’s language. When | use the word “scene”Small-Scale Structure of a Scene ua i in calls “Motivation-Reaction Units.” He calls them hat Dwight Swain calls “Motivation-Reaction = ca MR nein fo use Wy euch an absurdly ridiculous term that I'm going to Keep it, just to prove Honea Writing MRUs is hard. However, I've found that it provides the ‘Swain was not perfect. Us n ic Se Tar the buck in improving your writing. I’ve mentored many writers, and a universal problem for them was the failure to write MRUs correctly. My solution was to make them painfully work through several chapters so that each one was nothing more nor less than a string bf perfect MRUs. After a few chapters, the technique gets easier. Then I maliciously require them to rewrite their whole novel this way. This is brutally hard work, but those who have survived it have become much better writers. Writing MRUs correctly is the magic key to compelling fiction. I don’t care if or not. Try it and see, Thope you are salivating to learn this magical tool. Y‘ paragraph of theory. I know you will do this because am flattering you quite thickly. You will write your MRUs by alternating between what your POV character sees (the Motivation) and what he does (the Reaction). This is supremely important. Remember that ‘Swain calls these things “Motivation-Reaction Units”. The Motivation is objective but it is something that your character can see (or hear or smell or taste or feel). You will write this in such a way that your reader also sees it (or hears it or smells it or tastes it or feels it). You will then start a new paragraph in which your POV character does one or more things in Reaction to the Motivation. There is an exact sequence you must follow in writing your Reaction. The sequence is based on what is physiologically possible. Note that the Motivation is external and objective. The Reaction is internal and subjective. If you do this, you create in your reader the powerful illusion that he is experiencing something real. Now let’s break this down into more detail ... you believe me ‘ou need to first suffer through one full you are intelligent and patient and because I ‘The Motivation is external and objective, and you present it that way, in objective, external terms. You do this in a single paragraph. It does not need to be complicated. Here is a simple example: The tiger dropped out of the tree and sprang toward Jack. Note the key points here. This is objective. We present the Motivation as it would be shown by a videocamera, Nothing here indicates that we are in Jack’s point of view. That comes next, but in the Motivation we keep it simple and sharp and clean. The Reaction is internal and subjective, and you present it that way, exactly as your POV character would experience it — from the inside. This is your chance to make your reader be your POV character. To repeat myself, this must happen in its own paragraph (or sequence of Paragraphs). If you leave it in the same paragraph as the Motivation, then you risk whip-sawing the reader. Which no reader enjoys. pekee ey i more complex than the Motivation. The reason is that it is internal, and internal only have ae a ee poet time-scales. When you see a tiger, in the first milliseconds, you instnet basa, One thing — fear, Within a few tenths of a second, you have time to react on » but that is all it will be — instinct, reflex. But shortly after that first reflexive reaction,non-Swain sense, I'll leave it uncapitalized. Since you are exceptionally brilliant ae 1 find this a problem, Let me give you the high points on Scenes and and perceptive, you will not Sequels right up front. ‘A Scene has the following three-part pattern: 1. Goal 2. Conflict 3. Disaster A Sequel has the following three-part pattern: 1, Reaction 2. Dilemma 3. Decision You may think these patterns are too simple. You may think this is reducing writing to Paint- by-Numbers. Well, no. This is reducing fiction to the two patterns that have been proven by thousands of novelists to actually work. There are plenty of other patterns people use. They typically work less well. It may well be that there are other patterns that work better. If you can find one that works better, please tell me. But for now, let’s pretend that Dwight Swain is right. Let’s pretend these are absolutely the best possible patterns for writing fiction. Let’s pretend these are the keys to writing the perfect scene. Let’s move on and look at each of these in turn. As we said, the Scene has the three parts Goal, Conflict, and Disaster. Each of these is supremely important. I am going to define each of these pieces and then explain why each is critical to the structure of the Scene. I assume that you have selected one character to be your Point Of View character. In what follows, I'll refer to this character as your POV character. Your goal is to convincingly show your POV character experiencing the scene. You must do this so powerfully that your reader experiences the scene as if she were the POV character. 1. Goal: A Goal is what your POV character wants at the beginning of the Scene. The Goal must be specific and it must be clearly definable. The reason your POV character must have a Goal is that it makes your character proactive. Your character is not passively waiting for the universe to deal him Great Good. Your character is going after what he wants, just as your reader wishes he could do. It’s a simple fact that any character who wants something desperately is an interesting character. Even if he’s not nice, he’s interesting. And your reader will identify with him. That’s what you want as a writer. 2. Conflict: Conflict is the series of obstacles your POV character faces on the way to reaching his Goal. You must have Conflict in your Scene! If your POV character reaches his Goal with no Conflict, then the reader is bored. Your reader wants to struggle! No victory has any value if it comes too easy. So make your POV character struggle and your reader will live out that struggle too. 3. Disaster: A Disaster is a failure to let your POV character reach his Goal. Don’t give him the Goal! Winning is boring! When a Scene ends in victory, your reader feels no reason to turn the page. If things are going well, your reader might as well go to bed. No! Make something awful happen, Hang your POV character off a cliff and your reader will turn the page to see what happens next.‘That's all! There is literally nothing more you need to know about Scenes. Now let's look at Sequels . The Sequel has the three parts Reaction, Dilemma, and Decision. Again, each of these is critical to a successful Sequel. Remove any of them and the Sequel fails to work. Let me add one important point here. The purpose of a Sequel is to follow after a Scene. A Scene ends on a Disaster, and you can’t immediately follow that up with a new Scene, which begins with a Goal. Why? Because when you've just been slugged with a serious setback, you can’t just rush out and tty something new. You’ ve got to recover. That's basic psychology. 1. Reaction: A Reaction is the emotional follow-through to a Disaster. When something awful happens, you're staggering for awhile, off-balance, out of kilter. You can’t help it. So show your POV character reacting viscerally to his Disaster. Show him hurting. your reader a chance to hurt with your characters, You may need to show some passage of time. This is not a time for action, it’s a time for re-action. A time to weep. But you can’t stagger around in pain forever. In real life, if people do that they lose their friends. In fiction, if you do it, you lose your readers. Eventually, your POV character needs to get a grip. To take stock. To look for options. And the problem is that there aren’t any... 2. Dilemma: A Dilemma is a situation with no good options. If your Disaster was a real Disaster, there aren’t any good choices. Your POV character must have a real dilemma. This gives your reader a chance to worry, which is good. Your reader must be wondering what can possibly happen next. Let your POV character work through the choices. Let him sort things out. Eventually, let him come to the least-bad option... 3. Decision: A Decision is the act of making a choice among several options. This is important, because it lets your POV character become proactive again. People who never make decisions are boring people. They wait around for somebody else to decide. And nobody wants to read about somebody like that. So make your character decide, and make it a good decision. Make it one your reader can respect. Make it risky, but make it, have a chance of working. Do that, and your reader will have to turn the page, because now your POV character has a new Goal. ‘And now you've come full circle. You've gone from Scene to Sequel and back to the Goal for anew Scene. This is why the Scene-Sequel pattern is so powerful. A Scene leads naturally to a Sequel, which leads naturally to a new Scene, And so on forever. At some point, you'll end the cycle. You'll give your POV character either Ultimate Victory or Ultimate Defeat and that will be the end of the book. But until you get there, the alternating pattern of Scene and Sequel will carry you through. And your reader will curse you when he discovers that he’s spent the whole doggone night reading your book because he could not put the thing down. That's perfection. However, it’s only half the battle. I've told you how to design the Scenes and Sequels in the large scale. But you still need to write them. You need to write paragraph after compelling paragraph, with each one leading your POV character smoothly through from initial Goal to knuckle-whitening Conflict to bone-jarring Disaster, and then through a visceral Reaction to a horrible Dilemma and finally on to a clever Decision. How do you do that? How do you execute those paragraphs? How do you do it perfectly?you will also have time to react rationally, to act, to think, to speak. You must present the full semplex of your character's reactions inthis order, from fastest time-scale to slowest. If you put Carrie of order, then things just don’t feel right. You destroy the illusion of reality. And your vaca won't keep reading because your writin is “not realistic.” Even if you got all your facts right. Here is a simple examp! [A bolt of raw adrenaline shot through Jack's veins. He jerked his rifle to his shoulder, sighted on the tiger's heart, and squeezed the trigger. “Die, you bastard!” Now let's analyze this. Note the three parts of the Reaction: 1. Feeling: “A bolt of raw adrenaline shot through Jack’s veins. because it happens almost instantly. Reflex: “He jerked his rifle to his shoulder . fear, An instinctive result that requires no conscious thought. 3, Rational Action and Speech: “. .. sighted on the tiger's heart, and squeezed the trigger. last, when Jack has had time to think and act in a ‘Die, you bastard!” You put this rational way. He pulls the trigger, a rational response to the danger. He speaks, a rational expression of his intense emotional reaction. Itis legitimate to leave out one or two of these three parts. (You can’t leave out all three or you have no Reaction.) But there is one critical rule to follow in leaving parts out: Whatever parts, you keep in must be in the correct order. Ifthere is a Feeling, it must come first. If there is @ Reflex, it must never come before a Feeling. If there is some Rational Action, it must always come last. This is simple and obvious and if you follow this rule, your Reactions will be perfectly structured time after time. ‘And after the Reaction comes . . . another Motivation. This is the key. You can’t afford to write cone perfect MRU and then be happy. You've got to write another and another and another. The Reaction you just wrote will ead to some new Motivation that is again external and objective and which you will write in its own paragraph. Just to continue the example we've created so far: The bullet grazed the tiger’s left shoulder. Blood squirted out of the jagged wound. The tiger roared and staggered, then leaped in the air straight at Jack’s throat. Note that the Motivation can be complex or it can be simple. The only requirement is that it be external and objective, something that not only Jack can see and hear and feel but which any other observer could also see and hear and feel, if they were there. The important thing is to keep the alternating pattern. You write a Motivation and then a Reaction and then another Motivation and then another Reaction. When you run out of aaa or Reactions, your Scene or Sequel is over. Don’t run out too soon. Don’t drag on ” You show this first, ” You show this second, as a result of the Pirte cach Scene and Sequel a a sequence of MRUs, Any part of yourSeene or Sequel which ey ae ge, Cutit ruthlessly. Show no mercy. You can not afford charity for a single not pulling its weight. And th wei the MRUs. All else fe flute el 1¢ only parts of your scene that pull their weight areAbout Those Pesky Rules You may be feeling that it’s impossible to write your scenes following these rules. Doing so causes you to freeze. You stare blindly at the computer screen, afraid to move a muscle for fear of breaking a Rule. Oh dear, you've got yourself a case of writer's block. That’s bad, Now let me tell you the final secret for writing the perfect scene. Forget all these rules. That’s right, ignore the varmints. Just write your chapter in your usual way, putting down any old words you want, in any old way you feel like. There, that feels better, doesn’t it? You are creating, and that’s good. Creation is constructing a story from nothing. It’s hard work, it’s fun, it’s exciting, it’s unstructured. It’s imperfect. Do it without regard for the rules. When you have finished creating, set it aside for awhile. You will later need to edit it, but now is not the time. Do something else. Write another scene. Go bowling. Spend time with those annoying people who live in your house. Remember them? Your family and friends? Do something that is Not Writing. Later on, when you are ready, come back and read your Great Piece of Writing. It will have many nice points to it, but it will not be perfectly structured. Now you are ready to edit it and impose perfect structure on it. This is a different process than Creation. This is Analysis, and it is the opposite of Creation. Analysis is destruction. You must now take it apart and put it back together. Analyze the scene you have written. Is it a Scene or a Sequel? Or neither? If it is neither, then you must find a way to make it one or the other or you must throw it away. If it is a Scene, verify that it has a Goal, a Conflict, and a Disaster. Identify them each in a one-sentence summary. Likewise, if it’s a Sequel, verify that it has a Reaction, a Dilemma, and a Decision. Identify each of these in a one-sentence summary. If you can’t put the scene into one of these two structures, then throw the scene away as the worthless piece of drivel that it is. You may someday find a use for it as a sonnet or a limerick or a technical manual, but it is not fiction and there is no way to make it fiction, so get rid of it. Now that you know what your scene is, either Scene or Sequel, rewrite it MRU by MRU. Make sure every Motivation is separated from every Reaction by a paragraph break. It is okay to have multiple paragraphs fora single Motivation or a single Reaction. It is a capital crime to mix them in a single paragraph. When they are separated correctly, you may find you have extra parts that are neither Motivation nor Reaction. Throw them away, no matter how beautiful or clever they are. They are not fiction and you are writing fiction. Examine each Motivation and make sure that it is entirely objective and external. Show no mercy. You can not afford mercy on anything that poisons your fiction. Kill it or it will kill you. Now identify the elements of each Reaction and make sure they are as subjective and internal as possible, Present them as nearly as you can from inside the skin of your POV character. Make sure they are in the correct order, with Feelings first, then Reflexive Actions, and finally Rational Actions and Speech. Again, eliminate everything else, even brilliant insights that would surely get you a Nobel peace prize. Brilliant insights are very fine, but if they aren’t fiction, they don’t belong in your fiction. If you can contrive to rearrange such a thing to be in a correct fictional pattern, then fine. Keep it. Otherwise, slit its vile throat and throw the carcass to the wolves. You are a novelist, and that’s what novelists do.When you reach the end of the scene, whether it is a Scene or a S reac vene, fequel, check to make sure that everything is correctly placed in an MRU and all carcasses are thrown out. Feel free to edit the scene for style, clarity, wit, spelling, grammar, and any other thing you know how to do. When you are done, pat yourself on the back. You have written a perfect scene. All is well in your world. You are done with this scene. Now go do it again and again until you finish your book. Best regards,/ + 1. Character Design ( o Featuring the Artwork of Matt Highison o In this lesson we are going to look at some elements of good character design. This is not a drawing tutorial. This lesson illustrates principles that are the building blocks of good character design. Understanding them will help you in developing a process of good design in which drawing is only the last step. I divided this lesson into two phases: the conceptualizations phase that deals with understanding your | character and the realizations phase which deals with bringing it to life. * 2. Conceptualization Phase > Character Structure In this phase you are going to define your character. This is done by asking yourself a set of questions that will help you learn about whom it is that you are going to bring to life. Following are a few questions that will give you an idea what to think about: What is the life purpose of your character? + 3. Before you begin drawing, ask yourself the following questions... o Where is he from? What is your character afraid off? What does he / she think about? What is their main obstacle in life? What is his/her strengths and weaknesses? What type of friends does he have (see image below)? ... you get the idea. By following this process your character will have some dimension instead of just being defined as a combination of batman and superman. One very common model is to have a tridimensional character defining its physiological, sociological and psychological characteristics. ° 4. + 5. Identification o Characters that your audience can identify with will bring the character to life. This interaction between the viewer and the characters helps to create some bond between the character and the audience. The easiest way to do that is to make the character as human as possible. We all know what it is like to be human — to experience joy, suffering, success, failure and so on. If we find ” common themes like that that are universal, we will be able to reach out to a wide audience with our character. The more abstract your character becomes the harder it will be to achieve this.n haract i insecure might always can ‘ Peete ty around a big a: i The character that feels uncomfortable aie a a eet wear extreme high heels. In this Way you can imy aa a characteristics through symbolism. ey . 7. ‘ + 8. Humor 9. o Weall like characters that make us laugh and take make us forget our problems for a little bit. This can be done in a number of ways. Relationships in Size, Contrast in Intelligence, Irony or Misfortune. The worse off the character is, the better it will make the viewers feel about their own situation. 10. Imagination o Awakening people’s imagination is a powerful way to engage them with your character. Suggesting an idea that is open to interpretation easily does this. Create a scenario that will encourage the audience to feel some form of anticipation. In the example below there is a tension between the two characters. The eye contact demonstrates their awareness of each other. How they are going to interact next is completely left open. 11. 12. Realization Phase o Reference Once you know your character well enough and are able to visualize what he might look like, start gathering some reference that will aid you in communicating your idea most clearly. Find the elements that will help you in the realization process. If your character is an ancient warrior from a forgotten culture look up images of the Aztec, Mayan’s, Egyptians or other old human cultures. Research different types of armor, weapons, hairstyles clothing etc. This research will help you as a starting point to depart into unknown territory. It will bea proven launching pad for your own ideas. + 13. Sketching / Sculpting / 3D / Digital Painting © Depending on the final output of your illustration chose a medium that you understand well and that you feel comfortable working in. Sketching is most of the time the fastest way to quick materialize ideas. To understand the physical aspects ofa character well, it can help to sculpt or model it in 3D. That wayyou truly get to understand al t Il its physical i tangible way. If your whole process fs me 2 yo nM expressions that will be of. your character over and ov. illustration. + 14. Model Sheet + 15. Style o Some popular styles to use are: cartoony, realistic, caricature, stylized etc. Find a style that will work well with the theme you are working on. Challenge yourself; work in styles that you have never tried before. Try to explore new ways, develop your own eventually that will become your trademark. + 16. Appeal o Make your character pleasing to look at. You can achieve that through harmonious shapes, good draftsmanship and simplicity. Make sure your character has enough detail to being able to express your ideas clearly but make it simple enough so that you will be able to draw it accurately over and over again. + 17. Environment o Your Character is the main storytelling element in your drawing and everything else should just be a support to the character. That means that the focus in design complexity, color, light and staging should be on your character. Design your environment in a way that it supports the main idea of your illustration. « 18. To sum it all up..... o There are many different processes to approach character design. The important thing is to develop a process that will help you design great characters effectively. Some artist are able to draw amazing characters without doing much groundwork but for most of us it has to be a process to develop interesting, engaging characters. Best of luck with all your character creations. + 19. Citations: © http://www.amateurillustrator.com/articles/?p=144 o All Images in this lesson are the property of Matt Highison You can see Matt’s work at: http:// www.moonlitbasement.com great help once you will have to draw er again for comics / animation/ orCharacter Development Tricks! by Melanie Anne Phillips creator StoryWeaver, co-creator Dramatica Although it is possible to write without the use of characters, it is not easy. Characters represent our drives, our essential human qualities, So a story without characters would bea story that did not describe or explore anything that might be considered a motivation. For most writers, such a story would not provide the opportunity to completely fulfill their own motivations for writing. For example, we might consider the following poem: Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day. Are there characters in this short verse? Is the rain a character? To some readers the poem might be a simple invocation for the rain to leave, To other readers, the rain may seem to be stubborn, thoughtless, or inconsiderate. Of course we would need to read more to know for certain. Suppose we wrote the sentence, "The rain danced on the sidewalk in celebration of being reunited with the earth.” Now we are definitely assigning human qualities to the rain. Without doubt; the rain has become a character. Characters do not have to be people; they can also be places or things. In fact, anything that can be imbued with motivation can be a character. So, a fantasy story might incorporate a talking book. An action story might employ a killer wolverine. And a horror story might conjure up the vengeful smoke from a log that was cut from a sentient tree and burned in a fireplace. When we come to a story we either already have some ideas for a character or characters we would like to use, or we will likely soon find the need for some. But how can we come up with these characters, or how can we develop the rough characters we already have? Coming up with characters is as simple as looking to our subject matter and asking ourselves who might be expected to be involved. But that only creates the expected characters - predictable and uninteresting. Making these characters intriguing, unusual, and memorable is a different task altogether. But first things first, let us look to our Subject matter and see what characters suggest themselves. (If you like, try this with You own story as we go.) Example: ‘Suppose all we know about our story is that we want to write an adventure about some jungle ruins and a curse. What characters immediately suggest themselves? Jungle Guide, Head Porter, Archeologist, Bush Pilot, Treasure Hunter What other characters might seem consistent with the subject?