How Fiction Writers can Learn Story Structure

Working on Nano this year I've run across the same problem I always have--- I can think up story beginnings just fine, but what then? I've started novel after novel without completing. I've even written outlines for a few, but the only part of the outlines that seemed to be any good was the beginning.

Recently I bought a few books on story structure, outlining, and similar topics. They are:
Story Structure Architect: A Writer's Guide to Building Dramatic Situations and Compelling Characters
Book in a Month: The Fool-Proof System for Writing a Novel in 30 Days



Both of these books are written by Victoria Lynn Schmidt. The first one is most helpful in that it introduces the traditional story structure of three acts. The first act contains: a setup, the mood or tone, a hook, catalyst or inciting incident, the serious problem/goal, introduction of the villain and main characters, and a turning point. In the second act: the problem intensifies, there is a temporary triumph, a reversal, a dark moment, and another turning point. In the third act there is the final obstacle, the climax, and the resolution. (All these elements are described in a bit more detail in the book.

This was so helpful! Today I took my current work-in-progress, a steampunk story called 'The Aether Key' and jotted down some notes as to how I saw the story going going through all these steps. When I was done I had a rudimentary outline in which the story progressed nicely to a satisfactory ending, not the vague and unsatisfactory ending I had in other outlines I have written.

The second book, called 'Book in a Month' is even more helpful. It gives a step-by-step daily guide to writing a novel in a month OR for writing a detailed novel outline in a month. This is so helpful to me because I have such a hard time creating good work habits--- in particular I don't know how much is enough work for one day, so when I quit for the day no matter how much I've done I feel like a quitter.

Today--- doing day 2 of the BIAM (book in a month) schedule, I completed my assigned task--- to write 10 scene cards for the ten most important scenes in the book. In order to do that I had to do the task I described above where I jotted down how the story would progress through the steps of the traditional story structure.

I feel optimistic with this new approach. I think it might be a real help for other writers who, like me, are struggling with Asperger's/Autism Spectrum disorders or other things that might hinder them from writing success. For me, I wonder if my ASD has made it more difficult to discern story structure in the books I've read and made me get so caught up in the details I couldn't see the big-picture aspects.

Victoria Schmidt has a Yahoo group for writers following her method, called VBIAMClub. It does seem to be still active as there were 148 posts this month, but I can't see them as the moderator must approve new group members.

COMMENT PROMPTS:
Have you used Book in a Month's schedule to write a book or outline? Please comment on how it worked for you, or if you are considering trying it.
ALSO: If you are willing, tell one odd detail about your current Work-In-Progress. I'll start: in my story, set in 1868, Adolf Hitler's father, Alois Schicklgruber, along with his mistress at the time, are in the US working out some details concerning customs inspections. At the story's conclusion Alois decides to marry his mistress and stay in the US, thus preventing the birth of Adolf Hitler.

Can People with autism/asperger's become published Fiction Writers?

No matter how much I work on my writing I always have one source of doubt: is it even possible for someone like me--- a person with an autism spectrum disorder (Asperger's)--- to become a published writer?

Yeah, I know there are a lot of writers from the past like Herman Melville who are believed to have had an ASD. But I'm wondering about right here right now--- me.

One of the problems is that people with autism/asperger's have problems with social interactions, understanding the social rules that everyone else knows without being told. So can we learn to write about social interactions?

Actually, when it comes to that part I don't think it's that difficult. But there is another factor. In real life, people I meet don't choose to be my friend---even though I try to be nice to them, and to act like I'm 'normal'. So will people want to be a 'friend' of my writing? I mean, maybe no matter how good I get at it, people will be able to tell it was written by the kind of person that no one wants to be friends with and so they'll want to read something else instead.

And in these days the writer has to be involved with marketing their books and I'd imagine the last thing any publisher wants is to be saddled with some autistic person that isn't personable enough to do well at things like interviews and book signings....

I once tried to get in contact with other folks living with autism/asperger's by posting something on a writing forum, but the admin took offense because my reference to autism wasn't politically correct enough for him since I had the poor taste to joke. Well, I guess it's okay to mention it on my own blog, I've said a lot of stuff I shouldn't here and have had no complaints from Blogger.

I've searched the net for writer's forums for autistic/asperger people but I just find a lot of resources for parents/caregivers of those with autism. Don't know what to do about it really, so those I would whine about it on my blog where at least I'm not bothering anyone....

So--- enough of that. To update my life for anyone that cares--- I'm still working on my NaNoWriMo novel but have stopped to outline using the method in the book "First Draft in 30 Days", don't know how well that will work.

I have mentioned on this blog that I've had two kittens die recently. They were the two kittens out of the current batch that actually liked me enough that they'd purr when I picked them up. Recently, though, someone abandoned two half-grown kittens here and one of them is really friendly. I've named him Chan-ho, after major league pitcher Chan-ho Park, and the other kitten is named Chantho, after the alien in Doctor Who. You know, the one who started every sentence with 'chan' and ended it with 'tho'? As in, 'Chan that was one weird Doctor Who alien tho'.  The picture at the top of this post is of Chan-ho.

My Writing's Really gone to Hell this Nano

This year for National Novel Writing Month, I'm working on a project called 'Famine of the Heart' which is a dumb title since it sounds like a romance novel, and the actual story is a steampunk novel featuring sideshow freaks.

It's meant to be a lighthearted romp but the main theme seems to be.... hellfire. Specifically, the main character's mom is not saved (not in a state of grace) when she dies (killed while rescuing a child from a rampaging elephant.)

The main character Kerenza is quite sure her mother went to hell because: her mother had been guilty of the sin of adultery, when she is mortally injured she calls for a priest, but the priest who comes is actually an actor in a Roman collar, who cannot legitimately give absolution and also does not know how to encourage the dying woman to accept Christ.

The Christian theme of the story seems to be about forgiveness. Because Kerenza feels there is virtually no hope that her mother is anywhere else but in hell, she cannot forgive her father for having lured her mother into a life of adultery, and yet she knows that as a Christian she must forgive.

I know it's beginning to sound all boring, but there are also a lot of steam-powered machines and clockwork robots and stuff. And Kerenza is the only one who knows that an inventor's brother is Not To Be Trusted, and she really likes the inventor but they can't get involved because he's Jewish....

And then there are the conjoined twins, one of whom wants to be baptized and the other who doesn't want a drop of baptismal water touching him....

Which reminds me--- shouldn't I be working on my Nano novel right now? (I'm doing some outlining work for the next two days to figure out where the story is headed...)

My page at the NaNoWriMo web site.

No More Head Shaving. Ever.

Sometimes my eyes see stuff that just isn't there. Like when I noticed an ad reading 'No more head shaving.' OK, what it really said was 'no more shaving' but what my eyes saw at first was way better. Imagine never having to shave your head ever again, for the whole rest of your life. I hope there's a product for that.....

If you're wondering why this post is tagged 'axe-wielding homicidal maniac'--- LOOK BEHIND YOU!!!

Oh, No, it's Nanowrimo!!!

Ok, it's November. It's been November for a couple of days now. I've even flipped over the page of my calendar to November already. So why wasn't I aware until just now that National Novel Writing Month, AKA Nanowrimo, had started.

I'm going to do it, of course. I've never finished a nanowrimo, but during my first Nano, I did get saved.

It happened like this. I was a Norse Pagan and had been one for over a decade. I'd even edited a self-published Norse Pagan magazine until my stalker ruined that for me.

I was working at my Nano novel and had decided to pray about it. The question, as a Pagan, was which God to pray to--- Odin, Thor, Freya? As a Pagan I did not disbelieve in the God of Christianity, I just believed that He was just one tribal/ethnic God among many.

On impulse I decided to pray to the Christian God--- I gave Him a challenge. If He would give me measurable help with my novel, I would become a Christian.

I didn't really expect any help. And I didn't finish my Nanowrimo novel that year. But I did complete over 120 pages, which came out to 50 pages more than my previous best on any one writing project. And so I became a Christian.

I'm glad I did even though it meant I had to commit to a life of chastity because of my new faith, rather than being chaste in a unplanned way because of my unattractiveness.

So, participating in Nano is important to me even if I don't win. My nickname on the Nano site is 'ilsabein'. If you are participating in Nano, look me up!

Now, I must get to work naming the characters in my story (they are a family of freak show performers) and then I must start my first chapter. I have no idea where the story is going. But that's all right.

Writing Christian Science Fiction: An Impossible Dream?

Writing science fiction and getting published has long been a life goal for me--- but Christian science fiction for a Christian publisher hasn't been a part of my plans.

In part it has been because I've considered it unrealistic. Christian fiction publishers are mostly evangelicals; I'm Catholic. And being Catholic isn't something I'd want to absolutely hide in my fiction. Would my work ever be accepted by readers?

But recently I've reconsidered and am reading books about how to write Christian fiction. None of the books have any high hopes for a work of Christian science fiction. The one that is most optimistic seems to indicated that 'spiritual warfare' science fiction is the kind that gets published, not something with space aliens.

The books have a lot to say about who is reading Christian fiction: mostly women, mostly evangelicals.... But who is reading Christian science fiction? Have there been any studies, formal or informal, of that? Perhaps I ought to ask some Christian science fiction writers what sort of people they believe are reading their books.

The second question: what do the readers of Christian science fiction most want to read? What Christian science fiction books are the most popular? What secular science fiction books are most popular with Christian readers?

I wish I could find the answers to such questions. Not that I would concoct some plotline based on what's popular. But knowing who the readers aare and what they like to read might help me pick what story-ideas might be the best one to pursue.

A Darkover Retrospective: Marion Zimmer Bradley's writing beginnings

One important thing for a writer is to learn from the example of the careers of other writers. A very inspirational source for me has been Marion Zimmer Bradley's A Darkover Retrospective, which is included in a volume which collects 'The Planet Savers' and 'Sword of Aldones', the first two Darkover books ever published.

Sword of Aldones is the hardest to obtain of all the Darkover books. She essentially re-wrote the story told in Sword of Aldones in the much more mature work, Sharra's Exile.

Marion Zimmer Bradley explains in A Darkover Retrospective why the Sword of Aldones seems to be such an immature work--- she began working on its original form as a teen.

In the beginning, the world of Darkover was called Al-Merdin, and the Comyn--- the telepathic caste--- were called the Seveners, and consisted of seven families with telepathic gifts. The Hasturs, the Elhalyn, the Serrais, the Ardais and the Aldarans were, even at this early stage, much the same as in the Darkover books we know. The Altons were then known as the Leyniers, and the Aillards were then the Marceau of Valeron.

What i find most interesting is that here is a story, started by a fifteen year old girl, which became a series which the writer continued to her death (and beyond.) The story grew and changed as the author did--- which is why the series is more inconsistant than more closely planned series.

Although the Darkover books are commonly called a series, MZB herself did not like the term. For her, a series meant the sort of series--- perhaps a trilogy--- which was really just one very long book, which had to be read in order, and in which any given volume might end in a cliffhanger instead of a resolution.

MZB had her own code for writing Darkover stories. She wanted each volume to be a stand-alone story, with a resolution at the end. She didn't want to assume the reader of any new Darkover book had read the others and so was familiar with the world, its customs and its characters, and she wrote accordingly.

A Darkover Retrospective tells the story of the writing of many of MZB's early Darkover books, and also tells the story of her writing career--- from writing stories for small amounts of money, as well as writing 'potboiler' gothics and even editing an astrology magazine to provide extra family income, from her gradual realization that she was in fact regarded by editors and readers as a 'real' writer, and that this was something she could make a career of.

She also gives us an account of the various changes within the science fiction writing scene at the time and how she interacted with them--- the things she embraced, and the things, like the political/feminist science fiction novel, that she did not enjoy.

The label MZB uses for the genre of fiction that the Darkover books represent is 'science fantasy'. The books are science fiction in that they are set on another planet, with all the trappings of space travel. Yet they are fantasy-like in that there are sword-fights, and 'magic', though this is in the form of psionics--- telepathy, telekinesis and the like, all of which are deemed to have scientific explanations.

The 'Pern' series by Anne McCaffrey is similarly 'science fantasy'--- it's set on another planet, and though there are dragons, they were created by genetic engineering. But otherwise the label 'science fantasy' seems to be little used these days, and I presume that means that when pitching a novel that the writer might consider science fantasy, one is better off not using the words, but just pointing out the similarity to Darkover.

I found 'A Darkover Retrospective' sufficiently useful that I would have wanted to buy the volume containing it even if I had both of the Darkover novels in the book in other editions (I had 'The Planet Savers' but not 'Sword of Aldones'). For me, it's worth re-reading from time to time just as inspiration.


The Planet Savers/The Sword of Aldones

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Write a book along with Holly Lisle

Author Holly Lisle, whose web site is a treasure trove for the writer or would-be writer, has a new feature 'Write a book with me'.

She shares a little about the progress of her current book, and those participating share their word-counts and issues with one another in the form of comments to her blog entries. To view the latest post, here is the 'Write a book with me category'.

I'm considering whether to play along, myself. So far sharing about my works in progress has been more embarrassing than encouraging--- not because of what people say or don't say, but because I just look back at what I wrote about with intense shame. (My internal editor is Adolf Hitler.) But I have just started a fantasy story, one about an orphan whose new legal guardian is an evil mage, and who finds an interesting solution to that dilemma which leads to only more trouble.

I'd really like to hear from anyone who is or might be participating in Holly Lisle's 'Write a book with me' project. Drop me a comment!

How Robin Parrish got his First Novel Published

Photo credit: Ashley Morgan.
Getting a novel published these days can be hard, even if your novel is good. The advent of home computers with word processing software has increased the number of people able to throw a manuscript together by great amounts. Most of these novels are bad, and most publishers and agents have received so many that they adopt draconian policies to avoid unsolicited manuscripts and unproven writers.

Robin Parrish, author of our current blog tour book Offworld, found away around the barriers. He had a website called Infuze. One of his ideas for Infuze was to have a serialized story, with new sections brought out every two weeks. His website became popular enough that several publishers became aware of the story and were willing to publish.

Can other writers use Robin Parrish's method? Possibly--- but the story in question not only needs to be well-written, it needs to be a real page-turner that will get the reader totally addicted and coming back for more. It must be posted on a website or blog with a lot of traffic. And the writer must have a lot of luck!

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OFFICIAL BLOG TOUR STUFF:
THE BOOK: Offworld by Robin Parrish: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764206060
THE AUTHOR: Robin Parrish on Twitter (Yes, he tweets): http://twitter.com/robinparrish
THE BLOG TOUR GANG:
Brandon Barr
Jim Black
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Gina Burgess
Canadianladybug
Melissa Carswell
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Linda Gilmore
Beth Goddard
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Ryan Heart
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
Eve Nielsen (posting later in the week)
nissa_amas_katoj
John W. Otte
Lyn Perry
Steve Rice
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Speculative Faith
Stephanie
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Elizabeth Williams

A Writer's Show-and-Tell

Okay, so here I am sitting down to write a story. My main character is tall, red-haired and has a long tail. So--- I write: "Melinda was tall, red-haired and had a long tail."

But--- wait a minute! A writer is supposed to show, not tell, and that was telling. So--- I pen a scene illustrating the fact that Melinda was tall, another one that established that she was red-haired, and a third scene where we very definitely are informed about the tail thing.

I re-read. Eww, ick! My story is now cluttered with three irrelevant scenes! And while 'show, don't tell' is supposedly an important rule, the much more important one is this--- EVERYTHING in a story, even the stuff that seems thrown in to give it color and flavor, is there to do one thing--- to move the story forward.

Sometimes that means--- especially in a science fiction or fantasy work where there is quite a bit of infomation the reader needs to have to understand the story--- that you have to tell things.

A section of story where you tell some things is called an info-dump. Like the contents of a nuclear waste dump, an info-dump can grow too big to be safe, so unless you want your readers to glow in the dark, keep the amount conveyed in any one dump small.

Some writers convey information in dialog. So, instead of saying 'the alien Lizards only had one language back on their planet, Home, you have a bit of dialog where the alien Lizard Ttomalss says 'Why do you Big Uglies (humans) have so many languages? On Home, we have had only one language for tens of thousands of our years.'

The dialog method can go very badly wrong. When you find yourself conveying loads of information in dialog, and, worse, when your characters are telling one another things they obviously already know, you are writing dreadful dialog and must be stopped. No one wants to read, 'As you know, Kodos, our home planet is so civilized that we have not had a war in fifty trillion years,' said Kang. 'And as you surely know,' said Kang, 'our official planetary sport was changed from public executions to bikini designing a million years ago. Aren't we just so civilized!'

READING ASSIGNMENT: Reading the novel of your choice, take note on how the author is giving you information. How do you learn what the main character looks like, for example? (I hope there were no mirrors involved.) What came in the form of 'telling' and what was 'showing'? Do you feel the author made the right decisions on when to tell and when to show?

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How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy by Orson Scott Card
On the Prowl by Patricia Briggs
Write Great Fiction - Dialogue

Autism and the Rules of Mockery

Most people with an autism spectrum disorder have a history of being mocked by the other kids in school. It doesn't seem to matter whether one has one of the more severe forms, or a high-functioning form such as Asperger's Syndrome with which some can 'pass' as neurotypical ('normal'). Other kids just seem to know there's something odd about us, and some of them, lacking good home training, think it's okay to make fun of us, torment us, and otherwise make school into a foretaste of hell.

I was picked on in school, and I hated it. I was not usually made particularly aware of other kids who were outcasts like me and the subject of mockery, but when I was aware of other kids being mocked, it hurt just as much as if I were the target. I don't claim this as a virtue, it's just an oddity of the way my mind works.

There is one sad exception. Very late in my career as a student, I became aware of another student, a girl, who was gossiped about as being 'dumb'. Now, I was at a Christian school and we were not little children any more, so she was not mocked to her face, just behind her back. I suppose I was flattered at being included in this and so I am ashamed to say I took part in the negative gossip.

But over time as I participated in the dumb jokes I became uncomfortable. I began to realize that some of the kids were amused in an odd way at my remarks. In one case a friend (to the extent I had a friend) wondered at the vendetta I had against this girl even though I wasn't saying any more than the others were.

Now, looking back, I begin to understand that when I was not present, I was also a subject of mocking gossip. Perhaps to a much greater extent than this other girl. The amusement I finally noticed was because one outcast was mocking the other.

The rule of social behavior --- and Christian behavior--- that I learned is to never participate in negative or mocking gossip, and to stand up against it if others do this in your presence. You just never know what others are saying about YOU behind your back; take the high road! I imagine that if I had done so in the incident above, I might have been more respected by the other kids for sticking to high-minded Christian principles, rather than amusing them by daring to mock another person when I was so mockable myself.
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An Exercise against Writer's Block

If you ever feel like you just can't write, don't know what to write, or don't feel like you write well enough to actually put any words on paper right about now, here is a simple exercise that may help. I think I got it from one of the books about writing by Lawrence Block.

Just take any novel off your shelves, open it somewhere, and begin typing the copy into your computer until you have the urge to alter, change and improve the text at hand.

I have done this at some length and it does seem to help, especially the part where I am moved to add my own take on the work I'm copying. I've changed characters from the ones in the text to ones from my own writing, and changed the setting.

A variation is to copy out first paragraphs from several different novels, and perhaps copying them and then creating altered versions of them. This is a great exercise if you have a hard time coming up with story-beginnings. Or do the same thing with dialog segments, descriptions, narrative-in-general, first person or third person, and so on.

One point--- most of the time you will want to be giving yourself examples that are good, but useable. So avoid Shakespeare or Chaucer for your model, avoid equally first novels and novels of less-than-average quality. You don't want to teach yourself writing mistakes, if you are like me you can do THAT quite well on your own.
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Money and the Writer with Autism or A.S.

There is a stereotype out there that REAL writers are Artistes, who couldn't possibly care less about something as mundane as money, and that any writer who does think about money is a no-talent hack.

But in the real world of people who have to live on ramen noodles and dollar-store microwave popcorn at the end of the month, there are good writers who have relied on their writing to put food on the table.

This is particularly true in the case of the writer who has one of the Autism Spectrum Disorders such as Asperger's Syndrome (A.S.). I read once that about 80% of people with Asperger's Syndrome are unemployed--- this even though people with Asperger's Syndrome tend to be quite intelligent, and very many are led by their 'special interests' to obsessively learn about some subject, such as computers, and thus have skills an employer might want.

When reading a book about writing where the author speaks about how to know when it's time to quit your day job, the topic seems quite different when the reader rarely has had a day job, and has had to leave--- or been fired from--- even quite menial jobs because the employer just could not understand the need to accommodate an Autism Spectrum worker who after all isn't blind, mentally retarded, or missing any limbs.

A previous post on this blog has covered Holly Lisle's excellent book "Mugging the Muse" which is available for free in PDF format. Holly's book has an excellent approach to the issue of writers and money, and many useful tips for writers at all levels.

When you sit down at your writing station for the day's work, the factor of whether or not you have a hope of getting monetary rewards for your work will be a factor--- in how much time you can afford to put in on a writing project, for example. And how probable it is you will get published and earn money on your novel depends in part on what kind of novel you are writing, and what publishers you are aiming for.

There is a fine balanced to observe here. Romance novels, for example, are a very popular genre, a large number of romance books come out each month, and many romance publishers are open to first time unagented novelists. If you are an eager romance novel reader, this may end up being what you want to write. But Holly Lisle tells the cautionary tale of her romance-writing effort, which ended in a very bad and unsalable novel because her interest was not in the romance genre, but fantasy.

On the other hand, writer Tanya Huff, in the intro to 'The Blood Books, Volume One', which contains her two novels 'Blood Trail' and 'Blood Price', tells that she chose her subject--- vampires--- because she had noticed, working in a bookstore, that fans of vampire books were very loyal to their chosen sub-genre, and she thought that the book would be salable.

In the case of the writer with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, I would suggest this: find a genre and subgenre that not only interests you, but that tends to sell well and for which there are publishers that are open to new writers. Then, when choosing the precise topics for your proposed novel, try to include ideas that connect to one or more of your Special Interests.

A Special Interest is a feature of the Autism Spectrum Disorders. A Special Interest is a topic, often a narrow (precise) one, that is a mild obsession for the autistic person. Special Interests can be computers, railway timetables, Star Trek, and any number of other things. These interests may change over time. My own current special interests include Doctor Who and Torchwood television series, languages, especially Polish, Korean and Esperanto, and the Catholic faith.

You may get the idea I am promoting some sweetness and light idea of 'write what you love and the money will come'. Not so. There are a lot of things we can write about that would not bring about money at all. For example, back when I was a neopagan I had the idea of writing a novel based on the evangelical Rapture doctrine (like the Left Behind series) only from a neopagan point of view. Obviously there are very few people out there who want to read a story based on the Rapture doctrine, but who are OK with it being from a neopagan point of view!

You have to use your common sense to find topics that other people might want to read. You also have to get good at your craft, on every topic from worldbuilding to dialog to spelling and grammar.


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