Post by Aurora on Jun 25, 2008 21:31:30 GMT -4
Most of this came right out of a creative writing text book. I only changed the examples to be more Charmed related. Anyway, I hope this is helpful!!
Checking a plot for dramatic potential
1. Centers on a conflict
2. Outcome not obvious in advance
3. Something significant at stake
Examples of not-so-good plots and why:
* Some new character is introduced
Problem: No conflict. This is not enough. If in "Charmed Again", all they did was meet Paige and that was it, there would be no story. They need more--saving her life, and stopping The Source from making her evil, etc..
* Teen Phoebe made a duplicate set of keys for the family car and takes it joy-riding.
Problem: Outcome is too obvious in advance. Is there really any other way you can end this story than Phoebe has to give the keys back? This could be a great element to a story used to show Teen Phoebe’s character but does not stand on its own as a plot.
* Piper won ten thousand dollars and she decides how to spend the money.
Problem: Nothing significant at stake. It really doesn’t matter how she spends the money. Again this could be used as an element of a story to show what kind of a person Piper is, but should not be the plot.
Give some thought to the beginning, the end and the middle.
The job of the beginning of the story is to introduce your problem. The goal of the middle of the story is to create suspense. The job of the end of your story is to resolve the conflict.
If you are writing a novel, you have the luxury of long introductions if you so choose, but for the short stories, the problems should come up immediately.
The job of the middle of the story is to create suspense. You do this by alternating between scenes that suggest a favorable or unfavorable solution. Some of your scenes should also include little hints about how the story will be resolved. These hints should not stand out like neon signs but should be pretty apparent to anyone who reads the story for the second time.
A good way to do this is to make the relevant information come out in such a way that it also shows something else about the character or situation. They did this in "Blinded by a Whitelighter".
They showed Leo and Natalie’s comfort with each other with their finishing each other’s sentences while telling us that Ames acquired the powers to turn into an object. The important info that Ames could look like any object (think: darklighter crossbow) was overshadowed that by Piper’s jealousy and Natalie and Leo’s very buddy-buddy behavior.
However to do this kind of thing effectively, the ending must be known in advance. Once you know your central conflict, think about your resolution. What could happen, what should happen and how your characters would react?
Simple tricks to writing better dialog
Dialog needs to convey what the reader needs to know. It should be clearer then ordinary speech and with no irrelevant tangents. Skip any mundane discussions, like talking about the weather for example, unless you have a special reason for doing it that makes it relevant to the story.
Read over your exchanges between characters. If it sounds like an explanation with one character asking questions (for no particular reason) and another is answering them flatly, then you should consider rewriting your dialog. I call this job-interview-style dialog.
A simple trick that will dramatically improve your dialog is if you contrast the personalities of the characters in some significant way. Remember, every time you change speakers, you are changing point of views. Get in your character’s heads and before letting them answer anything, think about their motives, even if it is just yes or no. Best to follow Scifi’s advice about character consistency.
In dialog, to get your points across, another way to do it is provide vivid examples. Suppose in Power Outage, they just said at the home owner’s meetings they argue about the stupidest things. That would be flat and boring. Instead give an example so the points are more vivid and lifelike. “They broke out into this big argument about where to put the garden gnomes!” This is a lot better.
Checking a plot for dramatic potential
1. Centers on a conflict
2. Outcome not obvious in advance
3. Something significant at stake
Examples of not-so-good plots and why:
* Some new character is introduced
Problem: No conflict. This is not enough. If in "Charmed Again", all they did was meet Paige and that was it, there would be no story. They need more--saving her life, and stopping The Source from making her evil, etc..
* Teen Phoebe made a duplicate set of keys for the family car and takes it joy-riding.
Problem: Outcome is too obvious in advance. Is there really any other way you can end this story than Phoebe has to give the keys back? This could be a great element to a story used to show Teen Phoebe’s character but does not stand on its own as a plot.
* Piper won ten thousand dollars and she decides how to spend the money.
Problem: Nothing significant at stake. It really doesn’t matter how she spends the money. Again this could be used as an element of a story to show what kind of a person Piper is, but should not be the plot.
Give some thought to the beginning, the end and the middle.
The job of the beginning of the story is to introduce your problem. The goal of the middle of the story is to create suspense. The job of the end of your story is to resolve the conflict.
If you are writing a novel, you have the luxury of long introductions if you so choose, but for the short stories, the problems should come up immediately.
The job of the middle of the story is to create suspense. You do this by alternating between scenes that suggest a favorable or unfavorable solution. Some of your scenes should also include little hints about how the story will be resolved. These hints should not stand out like neon signs but should be pretty apparent to anyone who reads the story for the second time.
A good way to do this is to make the relevant information come out in such a way that it also shows something else about the character or situation. They did this in "Blinded by a Whitelighter".
They showed Leo and Natalie’s comfort with each other with their finishing each other’s sentences while telling us that Ames acquired the powers to turn into an object. The important info that Ames could look like any object (think: darklighter crossbow) was overshadowed that by Piper’s jealousy and Natalie and Leo’s very buddy-buddy behavior.
However to do this kind of thing effectively, the ending must be known in advance. Once you know your central conflict, think about your resolution. What could happen, what should happen and how your characters would react?
Simple tricks to writing better dialog
Dialog needs to convey what the reader needs to know. It should be clearer then ordinary speech and with no irrelevant tangents. Skip any mundane discussions, like talking about the weather for example, unless you have a special reason for doing it that makes it relevant to the story.
Read over your exchanges between characters. If it sounds like an explanation with one character asking questions (for no particular reason) and another is answering them flatly, then you should consider rewriting your dialog. I call this job-interview-style dialog.
A simple trick that will dramatically improve your dialog is if you contrast the personalities of the characters in some significant way. Remember, every time you change speakers, you are changing point of views. Get in your character’s heads and before letting them answer anything, think about their motives, even if it is just yes or no. Best to follow Scifi’s advice about character consistency.
In dialog, to get your points across, another way to do it is provide vivid examples. Suppose in Power Outage, they just said at the home owner’s meetings they argue about the stupidest things. That would be flat and boring. Instead give an example so the points are more vivid and lifelike. “They broke out into this big argument about where to put the garden gnomes!” This is a lot better.