My son, who is also named Platte, wants to be a writer, and I think this is a good idea. First, since we share the same name I can accuse him of writing any of my books that bomb. Second, if he writes something successful I can take credit for it. It's a win / win.
His dilemma, like many writers, is where to start. Sure, "It was a dark and stormy night," has some potential, but sometimes facing that blinking cursor feels overwhelming. I often think back to something I learned when I was writing screenplays: almost all stories come down to only one of four forms...four! Four doesn't seem very overwhelming.
So, the four story forms for nearly all stories:
- To retrieve
- To stop
- To win
- To escape
Try a little thesaurus exercise with each of the above words. I'll just start with "retrieve".
Retrieve: Bring back, recapture, redeem, repair, rescue, salvage.
How many stories do we know about bringing something back (stolen items); or recapturing something (on a battlefield, an escaped convict); redemption (of fallen hero or a sinner); repair (being stranded somewhere, drifting in a space capsule); rescue (hostages, those trapped in a disaster)...you get the idea. All derivations from the basic "to retrieve" story form.
So if you're stuck on where to start that novel you're itching to write, narrow the field down to one of the four forms. And from there, with a little help of a thesaurus, dive deeper into variations that pose interesting, unique, or compelling dilemmas. Of course we're only talking about the outer journey here, the external action. But hey, it's a good place to start and hopefully get the creative juices flowing (also, just what are creative juices and where do they flow to?)
Be careful. I think creative juices have been banned by city ordinance in American Fork. Or maybe you just can't buy them on Sundays, I forget.
ReplyDeleteI think stop and win are the same.
ReplyDeleteI think there are elements of both, but they are not the same. If it's a war story "winning" could be defined as "stopping" the other guy from winning. But I think the distinction is still useful in terms of how to focus your story, especially if an abstracted form helps you center in on what things are about. A lost platoon stopping the enemy from overrunning their position is going to be different than paratroopers trying to win their foothold behind enemy grounds. Or "winning" the heart of another is a different kind of focus than "stopping" someone else from doing the same. But I get what you're saying: winning = stopping someone else from winning. That's not always the case "B.F. Skinner's Walden Two"), but I think the forms are useful not as mutually exclusive categories but as a way of getting to the heart of what the story's about.
ReplyDelete