Nanowrimo Prep - narrative structure cheat sheet
Saturday, October 8, 2011 at 9:56AM in Alexandra Sokoloff
There really is something about fall for me, this huge jolt of energy. Thank God, because I have a lot to do. This week I did my taxes and a book proposal at the same time, two activities that should never be performed simultaneously. (At some point the brain does explode, doesn’t it?) This week I have to write another book proposal while doing edits for another book, and go to Houston to teach a workshop.
In the middle of all of this there is another book that I am dying, just dying to get done. This is why I’m a big fan of Nanowrimo. Even though, truthfully, like every full-time writer I have a Nano-like writing schedule most of the time, there’s something about having a designated month where all kinds of people are putting in this kind of insane writing time with the insane goal of having some rough approximation of a book at the end of it that makes it all feel okay, somehow, even doable.
For the last couple of years I’ve been doing a Nano Prep series on my blog in October, because I reel in horror at the idea of people just sitting down on Day 1 and starting to write to see what comes out. The chances of getting a viable book out of that process seem – slim.
I may finally have gone to the opposite extreme, though. The more I analyze structure, the more it seems to me that every story has the same underlying structure. In previous years I’ve come up with a checklist of story elements, and last year I really expanded on that one. But in the last month of some short workshops and my Nano Prep, I’ve actually tried to put the most important of those story elements into an almost narrative, a cheat sheet for story development.
So I’m running it by you all today, to see if it makes sense to anyone but me.
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Narrative Structure Cheat Sheet
Act I:
We meet the Hero/ine in the Ordinary World.
S/he has:
-- a Ghost or Wound
-- a strong Desire
-- Special Skills
And an Opponent, or several, which is standing in the way of her getting what s/he wants, and possibly wants exactly the same thing that s/he wants
She gets a Call to Adventure: a phone call, an invitation, a look from a stranger, that invites her to change her life.
That impulse may be blocked by a
-- Threshold Guardian
-- And/or the Opponent
-- And/or she is herself reluctant to take the journey.
But she overcomes whatever opposition,
-- Gathers Allies and the advice of a Mentor
-- Formulates a specific PLAN to get what s/he wants
And Crosses the Threshold Into the Special World.
Act II:1
The hero/ine goes after what s/he wants, following the PLAN
The opponent blocks and attacks, following his or her own PLAN to get what s/he wants
The hero/ine may now:
-- Gather a Team
-- Train for battle (in a love story this can be shopping or dating)
-- Investigate the situation.
-- Pass numerous Tests
All following the Plan, to achieve the Desire.
No matter what genre, we experience scenes that deliver on the Promise of the Premise – magic, flying, sex, mystery, horror, thrills, action.
We also enjoy the hero/ine’s Bonding with Allies or Falling in Love
And usually in this Act the hero/ine is Winning.
Then at the Midpoint, there is a big Reversal, Revelation, Loss or Win that is a Game-Changer.
Act II:2
The hero/ine must Recover and Recalibrate from the game-changer of the Midpoint.
And formulate a New Plan
Neither the Hero/ine nor the Antagonist has gotten what they want, and everyone is tired and pissed.
Therefore they Make Mistakes
And often Cross a Moral Line
And Lose Allies
And the hero/ine, or if not the hero/ine, at least we, are getting the idea (if we didn’t have it before) that the hero/ine might be WRONG about what s/he wants.
Things begin to Spiral Out of Control
And get Darker and Darker (even if it’s funny)
Until everything crashes in a Black Moment, or All is Lost Moment, or Visit to Death.
And then, out of that compete despair comes a New Revelation for the hero/ine
That leads to a New Plan for the Final Battle.
Act III
The Heroine Makes that last New Plan
Possibly Gathers the Team (Allies) again
Possibly briefly Trains again
Then Storms the Opponent’s Castle (or basement)
The Team (if there is one) Attacks the Opponent on his or her own turf, and all their
--- Skills are tested.
--- Subplots are resolved,
--- and secondary Opponents are defeated in a satisfying way.
Then the Hero/ine goes in alone for the final battle with the Antagonist. Her Character Arc, everything s/he’s learned in the story, helps her win it.
The Hero/ine has come Full Circle
And we see the New Way of Life that s/he will live.
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Let me know if this makes sense, or is at all helpful, and otherwise, who else is doing Nano? And for the happy, sane, non-writers, do you get that Back to School feeling about fall, too? What are you doing with that burst of energy?
- Alex
Reader Comments (44)
I worry about your workload, though, girl. You need to be gentle with yourself sometimes. There's only so much elasticity in the body's ability to absorb stress. Too much and it snaps, and then somehow it's never quite as stretchy ever again ...
Take care - be well!
Stories DO instinctively hit those milestones, but I forget what I'm doing even as I'm doing it.
One of your previous articles made me realize that there *is* a guardian in my WIP . . . and now you've got me thinking that a secondary character is also following this structure pretty closely in her subplot --- her darkest moment is also the female MCs darkest moment. I'm going to have to examine the male MC's structure (no pun intended).
Thanks, Alexandra!
I find the threshold guardian character is a hard concept for some people to grasp until they realize it doesn't have to be a separate character - an ally or relative can act as the threshold guardian, or the opponent or a secondary opponent, or the mentor, or literally anyone who is standing in the way of the main character or warning them at that threshold into the special world.
I normally tell my students that this sort of guideline is best used after you've done some thrashing around with your characters and story, searching for the unique scenes and problems your characters possess. Otherwise, you can invite cliche by just banging out something that conforms to your preconceived idea of what the story needs to be, instead of what it uniquely is.
Also, you have to be open to letting the elements be in play, not straightjacket you.
In CHINATOWN, for example, we don't learn of Jake's ghost/wound until the midpoint, when Noah Cross tells Jake he thinks he knows what he's dealing with, but doesn't, and Jake admits that that is what the DA in Chinatown always told him. (And it gets echoes in his subequent love scene with Evelyn.) It's hinted at in his first meeting with Escobar (when they discover Mulwray's body), but it's not revealed meaningfully until much later.
Also, in stories where the conscious desire and the unconscious desire clash (e.g., MIDNIGHT COWBOY), the "gathering of allies" and such often is not deliberate.
And in narratively ambitious or multiple storyline tales, such as the films of Tarantino and Iñárritu, the individual pieces may conform to this structure, but everything else is much more fluid -- in particular, chronology.
That said, this is always a good thing to think about after you go back over your story elements to make sure you haven't left a gaping hole, or have allowed yourself to meander in Act 2.
Good luck with all your projects, Alex, and knock 'em dead in Houston -- as I am sure you will.
I agree that this sort of clean look at infrastructure is particularly helpful once you're well into the book - or even finished it. Going back over something and axing yourself if your narrative is hitting those key transition moments is a really fantastic exercise.
Also: mad props to Corbett for his flowery diacritical precision with "Iñárritu"!
Though, since the actual point where she learns the secrets of her order and rejects them, and that person, is the midpoint, it may still qualify.
Now logged in and trying again.
Alaina, just because your protagonist is unaware of her antagonist doesn't mean there isn't one - it sounds to me as if you've got a doozy of one and your protagonist is on a collision course with her from the beginning, just unaware of it. There's usually not just one antagonist, though, but rather FORCES of antagonism, and I may be wrong, but the guarders of the secrets in her order sound like the initial forces which coalesce into this one character.
I've never used the structure consciously while writing a first draft, but I can see how it would be handy during a massive effort like NaNoWriMo, and especially handy for analyzing the manuscript for revision afterwards!
You almost got me wanting to participate in NaNoWriMo!
I hope it didn't sound like I'm advocating STARTING with this template. I'm a big fan of free-form brainstorming on index cards and any assorted scraps of paper first. I forget what I've posted when.
On an instinctive level, maybe this is why I like your version better.
David talked about structure at the Book Passage conference. That was an eye-opening discussion too.
But the forays are unstructured and sometimes I lose my way and when I do, I go back to your website and previous posts, and now this one, as a map to find my way back. Thanks so much.
What about literary fiction...is it different than genre fiction and how do you know how to landmark if there's no genre expectations?
And the second question: When condensing a rather lengthy MS, would you recommend filling in the above blanks and mostly cutting out the filler within the MS (like Stephen Jay Schwartz' idea of ghosting...it'll remain)?
BTW, I'm probably the only one here who has never noticed that the word question begins with the word quest...hmm.
(Sorry, couldn't resist.)
The thing is, there are TONS of subgenres in literary fiction, just like there are TONS of subgenres and story types, all with their own structures, within that basic structure I just outlines. If you're writing THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, you're writing a fairy tale just like Sleeping Beauty, for example, with the heroine/princess hidden away in the woods by three fairy godmothers who raise her to be the princess she really is. If you're writing SIDEWAYS, you're writing a road trip. Both of those story types have their own structure, tropes and delights. This is why I drill students on what KIND of story they're writing as well as the genre. You find them in literary fiction just as much as in genre fiction and it really, really helps to know what kind of story YOU'RE writing.
http://thedarksalon.blogspot.com/2011/06/what-kind-of-story-is-it.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+AlexandraSokoloff+%28Alexandra+Sokoloff%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
Another thing I'd say is that you can very, very often condense several scenes into one powerful climactic scene, which is always the best way to go.
Am I wrong?
Let's say the main character is struggling morally and what if, by the narratives' end, there is no resolution? Does it become thought provoking or unresolved and incomplete?
Would the genre perhaps loosely be romance (the protag courting both sides of his moral dilemma)?
I'm not talking about Jane Eyre, obviously....! But to me that's literary, not romance.
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I reread this blog and, because I really want to be able to do NaNo this year - to complete it. I saw something different last night. I don't know how, or what cleared up for me.
The notes I had in my head looked like they could work with the format you presented. I started to write it out, and it came together. I have always resisted outlines. I took an F once, because I "forgot" to include my outline in a paper for a speech proposal.
I just want to say thank you, because I never thought this would happen. I believe I will finish NaNoWriMo this year, despite my mouthstick breaking -- and my hands not working most of the time -- and my voice giving out on Dragon. The simple beauty of the story coming together has a huge ability-factor enhancement.
I hope this isn't hijacked again, because I want you to know that I get it.
xo
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