The Story Drop

[The Drop: source]

 I've been blogging about how to make writing more literary. A while ago, we looked at the normal world. Whether you're writing from a hero's journey perspective or not, there's usually a point at which your story really kicks into high gear, and you've confirmed your genre. You don't want the normal world to be exactly boring because you'll lose your reader. That is the time to really make your reader care as you develop your character and make them and their world interesting. But then, the drop comes, like a drop in music. The shift comes from the normal world to the real story, and that is when you should really engage your reader through the story. 

[Decisions: source]

That drop can happen in any of a number of ways. If you're writing literary fiction, it may be when a new character enters to alter the dynamic or when the first major choice on which your story is based is made. This is when Hamlet meets his father's ghost or Macbeth first decides to kill the king. If you're writing a romance, that drop may come when the protagonist meets their romantic pairing or when they go into the underworld, figuratively or literally, where they will meet or engage with their future significant other in the plot. Romeo meets Juliet. If you're writing an adventure story--western, sci-fi, fantasy, horror etc.--it should absolutely be when your story goes from world and character introduction to the first step into the underworld. Harry Potter meets Hagrid or is introduced into the Wizarding World on Platform 9 3/4. Either could be seen as a drop. 

[Engaging the Reader: source]

By this point, you should have made your character engage emotionally with your protagonist through the normal world, through loss, through humor, through empathy, curiosity, etc., so when the conflict comes, we care what happens. Sometimes, the drop comes, and there's no significant difference. They step into the underworld, and the character and reader don't realize it until they're in the thick of peril or engagement. Sometimes, the character doesn't realize it, but the reader does because they've spent the first several pages waiting for the protagonist to meet the future significant other. If the drop is too slow, too uninteresting, you could lose your reader. I held on with a sci-fi version of Pride and Prejudice until Lizzy showed up, and that moment was flat and dull. I walked away. Sneaking up on the reader can be good if it's done with subtlety instead of awkwardness or boredom. Especially if there's a solid payoff. However, it can also hit like a tsunami, launching the reader into a wild adventure

[Gandalf: Gatekeeper of the Underworld: Source]

Whatever is driving your story starts kicking into high gear. There should be some kind of ramping up, some increase in intrigue, suspense, excitement, tension, or the like. If your story is character-driven, there should be an increased awareness of their desire for things to be different. Val Jean yearns to break free of his prison cell, both exterior and interior. If your story is plot-driven, your character might just then realize the world is broken, whether or not they realize they will have to fix it. Harry Potter learns about Voldemort as part of learning about his past. If your story is question-driven, this is when the central question is posed. It's that moment the femme fatale walks into the gumshoe's office with her mystery. If your question is milieu or world-driven, this is usually when the protagonist enters the strange world. Gulliver sees the little people, or Gandalf introduces the Hobbit to a world outside his Hobbit hole. 

[Make the Drop Special: source]

One way or another, the author needs to be aware of that drop and take pains to make it mean something. This is when the story really starts. What do you do in your story to mark the entry into the underworld or the introduction of the other romantic lead? What do you do to really engage the reader to a higher degree? If you can't find anything, is there some way you can improve or rework that part to make the reader care? 

Emotional Symbols

 

[When simple objects in a story don't remain simple; source]

I've been blogging about how to write in a more meaningful, literary way. In life, an object is just an object. Most don't have unnecessary baggage. As s popular quotation goes, sometimes a soup label is just a soup label. However, some objects have much more significance. Think through the things in your bedroom. The bed is likely just a bed. A side table is just a side table. They're just objects. But there's something there, probably several somethings, that mean more. Your trash can may mean nothing unless it's full of tissues you cried into from your last breakup. If your television or lamp were gifts from your late grandma, they may mean more than just the thing. Good writing is usually about making the reader feel. Emotional symbols can make that happen. A scene in a book can be so much more powerful and loaded when it contains one or more emotionally-laden symbols of something deeper going on. 

[Hamlet's Skull; source]

Shakespeare was a master of emotional symbols. Think of Hamlet's soliloquy to a dead man's skull, forever the symbol of the whole play. "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne me on his back a thousand times, and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is!" Because he knew the dead man and cared for him, the skull is not just a skull. It's a symbol of death, which can come to anyone, no matter who they are and how we feel about them. 

[Bloody Dagger-source]

Meanwhile, Macbeth has a vision of a bloody dagger, which represents the murderous pathway on which he's about to embark in usurping the kingdom. A simple item doesn't have to stay just a deadweight on the page. It can become something more, something that represents the emotional baggage of the story and the characters. It can foreshadow things to come and bring up critical things of the past that have bearing on the scenes going on right now. 

[The Broken Wand; source]

So how do you use emotional symbols in your story? Look through your scenes and find significant items. Is there a pen for signing a marriage or betrothal decree or possibly a law if you're writing about a king? The pen could stay just a deadweight, just a thing. Or it could become something monumental and terrifying, something that reminds the protagonist of a threat of the past. Percy Jackson's pen becomes a sword, a symbol of power and might and a tie to the Olympian gods. The various wands that pass through Harry Potter's hands rarely remain just pieces of wood. They're tied to power of different kinds, dark or light. The sorting hat symbolizes his choice between light and darkness. His friend, Ron's, broken wand becomes a symbol for his broken life and his struggles with everything. 

[Your Writing-source]

Look at how your favorite authors use symbols. How do objects work beyond just the surface level? Does a weapon stay just a weapon, or does it become something more? Does it remind the character of the trauma or loss of the past or obligations of the future? Both? What deeper meaning can you bring into simple objects in your story to make the scene mean more? 

A Focus on the Future

[The future; source]

I've been blogging for over seven years on how to write in a more meaningful and literary fashion. One important technique is to hint at what is to come in the story. It keeps the narrative and the reader focused on the end or at least the next step. It also can hint at some kind of fate or destiny, to make that future feel bigger and more important than just one character. There are multiple ways to do that. 

[Prophecies; source]

The most obvious way to point to the future of the story is through a prophecy. 20+ years ago, almost every story featured some plucky child of prophecy. The protagonist may have been princes, princesses, wizards, peasants, knights, or just a regular human, but they all featured prominently in a prophecy. Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, and so many others appeared prominently in a prophecy. In the case of Harry Potter, he was one of two who could have fulfilled the prophecy. One way or another, many characters are made special and unique through the prophecy trope. 

[Foreseeing the future; source]

Some still do today, though child of prophecy has fallen out of favor mostly because this trope has been so overused. There's often no meaning or depth to this prophecy, just a trick of the narrative that arbitrarily singles out one character above all others. This is no longer a recommended trope; however, prophecy can still used on occasion. If you're going to use it, I'd recommend finding a way to be subtle, more like signs and foretellings point to events happening or a nebulous prophecy that doesn't explicitly point to one character being a child or prophecy. Better yet, it can be used ironically or in some new or unexpected way. 

[Romeo and Juliet; source]

A lot of literary fiction uses foretelling to hint at events to come and to direct the drama of the story. Foretelling is a technique whereby the author comes out and tells the reader what is coming, like the beginning of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet." Most people have heard the line that tells us, "A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life;/Whose misadventured piteous overthrows/Do with their death bury their parents’ strife." There's no beating around the bush, no hinting. The author just tells us what's coming. 

[From question to question; source]

I read a book wherein almost every chapter starts with something like, "I didn't know then that everything was going to blow up in my face." We have a hint and then become hyperfocused on how everything will blow up. The question of how becomes the question that builds tension and excitement. The reader keeps going because no sooner is one such question answered than another appears. It carries us through. I haven't seen this a lot in modern literature, but it can be powerful when used right. 

[Foreshadowing death; source]

A more common technique even with modern fiction is foreshadowing. Hints in the world, in the narrative, in the dialogue hint at something momentous about to occur. Two characters walk through a cemetery, and the shadows touch on one of them. The cold wind sends a shudder like death down his spine. A sense of foreboding builds up in the protagonist. Everything for pages point to his death, and then, he's poisoned or some such. It feels potent, meaningful, and inevitable. The very world of the story has been preparing us for that loss, building the tension. 

Think of how you may use a focus on the future to help build tension for your reader. Is there some way to bring in prophecy, foretelling, or foreshadowing? 

The Hero's Hand

[When somebody/something else saves the day; source]

I've been blogging about writing anything in a more meaningful fashion. I once listened to a presentation at a writer's conference by Chris Heimerdinger about how the big action should somehow be done by the hero's hand. I have since then read a lot of stories in which the protagonist either overcame or participated in the overcoming of the antagonist/larger forces at work and many in which the protagonist didn't. (Spoiler alert) In Jurassic World 2, the heroine leads one monster through the city strategically to make sure another monster takes it out. She took charge of her fate and saved herself. Meanwhile, in the latest movie, the director got all the heroes of the Jurassic Park series and the ones of Jurassic World together for a dramatic climax in which...none of them did anything but stand there while the dinosaurs took each other out. No hero had to do any heroing. I can't imagine a more disappointing way for a series to end. There is a huge difference in the impact of the two kinds of narratives, and I find myself agreeing that the best stories do, indeed, give the hero a big role in the climax. 

[Hand of God; source]

It's tempting to solve all the hero's problems with deux ex machina, God in the machine. There are a lot of books out there in which some divine power either literally or figuratively saves the day. Most of the best fiction avoids this because it's too easy. Divine powers can help, but if there is no participation by the main character we have followed along the whole book, it's a major let down. The hero can resolve problems through divine aid, but what's the point of watching a hero develop skills if those skills have little to do with the resolution? 

[Luke vs Darth; source]

I actually read a book recently wherein the heroine didn't have to fight the antagonist on any level. She prayed, and the divine power in the book took care of everything. The author was probably thinking she prayed, right? But the only emotional reaction I had to the climax was disappointment. If Luke Skywalker had stood by, watching a lightning bolt come down and blast away Darth Vader or Emperor Palpatine, the movies may have died a quiet death before they become a phenomenon that has affected generations of audiences. Many have compared the force to priesthood/divine authority, in the first series, and Luke's clothing was reminiscent of a priest in "Return of the Jedi," but he used the power, himself, and/or inspired his father to do so through his actions. 

[Helpless heroines--source]

It's almost as bad when some other figure in the book steps in and solves all the problems for the main character, but this is more common. I would have much preferred Disney's "Snow White" had the protagonist actually lifted a finger to take out her evil stepmother and "Sleeping Beauty" had it been the princess to slay the dragon. Of course, one can argue Aurora's prince is a main character, too, which makes the ending somewhat better. It's only with later generations of Disney movies that the protagonist gets to face off with her antagonist, when there's an antagonist to be found. Imagine how exciting it wouldn't have been to follow Harry Potter all the way to the end only to have Dumbledore or Snape stand up to Voldemort in the end. 

[Protagonist faces the dragons: source]

Does your hero take down your antagonist or at least have a serious hand in it? They may send forth the beast that faces the dragon, resolving their story arc and showing the themselves to be master of both the under and the upper worlds. But one way or another, do yourself and the reader a favor by making sure you, the writer, don't become their worst enemy through dull writing and a hero who can't save the day in the end. 

Action vs Violence

[Action or violence?-source]

 I've been blogging about how to write in a more literary fashion. This post is about defining terms and about gradations of action in a story. Some stories avoid any kind of physical danger. Modern and historical romance novels, children's stories, and other stories are primarily character-driven and often focused more on relationships. There may be brief scenes of action or physical risk, but this is often not an issue in these stories. At the other end of the spectrum are stories that are nonstop action, death, and/or destruction. When one is writing this kind of story, one must be aware of the audience and purpose as the writer crafts a story.

[Action vs Violence-source]

I first became aware of that fine line between action vs violence from famous actor and director Jackie Chan. He says he wants his movie to have “plenty of action, but not violence." So what's the difference? If a character seriously injures or kills another character, that is violence. Think "Taken," "Terminator," "Alien," horror films, war movies, and the like, where guns, swords, or other means draw blood and cause serious bodily harm. Movies and novels with violence are everywhere. 

[Examples of Action-source]

Action, meanwhile, is still about movement, risk, and danger, but it often doesn't involve bloodshed, broken bones, and gory death. Think most Star Wars, Harry Potter movies, Disney, and similar shows. Jackie Chan may knock down and fight enemies, but no one is bleeding. There's still something at stake, often something broken in the world that the main characters need to fix, but graphic violence is rare or minimal. 

[Heroes and Villains-source]

There is a place and an audience for any approaches to physical risk and danger. Frequently, books intended for younger audiences avoid violence in favor of action. The focus is on defense and heroism. Right and wrong are clearly defined. Heroes rarely kill the villain. If the villain dies, the story will often avoid having the protagonist somehow avoid delivering the killing blow by having the villain, himself, or someone or something else causes that death. In Disney movies, the prince, dwarfs, or some other side characters push the dragon off the cliff. Gaston leans back trying to stab the Beast, and he falls to his death. There may be some violence, some blood, but most of it is off-screen, high-tech (against robots or using a laser or lightsaber), magic-related, or somehow minimized. 

[Violence-source]

Older audiences often prefer gradations of gray. Violence can be throughout, with the protagonist and other characters meeting the antagonists' violence with their own. Think Marvel's Punisher. The hero can also be made to seem more heroic in hesitating to meet violence for violence, death for death. It may be that the hero doesn't hesitate to use violence but only kills when forced or doesn't kill at all. Marvel's Daredevil, for instance, will beat down hallways of enemies to rescue a child, ally, or antagonist, but he draws the line at killing. The conflict between Punisher's and Daredevil's perspectives on whether or not killing is justified or necessary is built up as the central theme of season two. The show combines and alternates between action scenes and ones of intense violence, depending on the needs of the story. 

[Mirror-source]

Choosing how to use action without violence, a focus on violence, or somewhere in between will depend on your intended audience and what you're intending with it. Where is your focus? What level of risk and action works for your genre, your protagonist, and your story? Be true to your main character. Your antagonist and protagonist should mirror each other in some way. What makes them the same? What makes them distinct? If your hero uses more intense violence than the antagonist, what makes him/her/them the hero? Think of the morals and ethics of the characters. What is limiting or enhancing the level of action and/or violence? Think carefully through your approach and how this highlights your important characters to make your whole story more intentional and meaningful.

Avoid Bogging down Story and Character

[The Doorway to Understanding Writing is Reading: source]

I've been blogging about writing in a more literary and meaningful fashion. I've read thousands of pages of fiction in the last year, some of it very very good, some of it mediocre, some of it so painful I couldn't finish it. What often made the difference was when information/backstories weighed so heavily in the story that both story and character have been bogged down to the point of being sunk. 

[World and Character Building: Source]

Most stories and major characters need some kind of backstory. If you're writing in fantasy, sci-fi, or a similar genre, you also need to build a world. All of this can be fascinating if you slip it out little by little, allowing your character to fully immerse into the world as deeper and deeper levels are slowly revealed by interactions with each other and their slowly revealed world. Percy Jackson and Harry Potter, for instance, start in a normal world. As they interact with that normal world, we learn more and more about who they are and how they respond to a world that becomes increasingly bizarre, more magical, more surprising. 

[Wall of Words: Source]

However, if that second or even first page, had started like so many amateur writers do their worlds, a reader could not get past that positive wall of info dumping wherein we learn every detail on their past and every detail on their world right away. There are readers that will plow through that, who are just as fascinated by your narrative explaining every little thing about every character and the world right away. But most of us will be turned back. It does not invest us in either emotionally in character or world, which is the point of good storytelling. The reader wants to be swept up, not bored or walled off. 

[Informed Attributes: Source]

The other way you can really turn off a reader with data dumping is by telling your reader all about a character and then never fulfilling your promises. This is called giving your characters informed attributes. Man, this character is hilarious. But he never does anything funny. Wow, this character is a super genius. How smart is he? So amazingly smart. But he never does anything to PROVE he's smart. We just have to take the narrator's word for it. This makes the narrator a liar and unreliable. Which is a whole separate strategy if it's used intentionally. In general, it's better to SHOW he's smart or funny. Then, your narrator never has to say it. The reader just knows.

[Using Informed Attributes Used Intentionally for Humor: Source]

An author can use informed attributes intentionally for a specific purpose. They can work for humor or irony. "You're so hilarious," says the enemy in a dry tone, highlighting how serious that character is.  "What a genius," the main character's best friend says sarcastically. Then, the character has to prove his best friend wrong. Or you build up a big, evil, scary villain only to show the reputation was based on gossip and lies. He ends up being the protagonist's mentor. Or your characters are all about a quest to find the mighty wise one only to find out his reputation was exaggerated, and they're on their own again. Informed attributes can work if they're not used straight but as an emotional strategy. 

[Data dumping: Source]

Large spans of data dump all at once are touchy but can sometimes be done after the first chapter or two. Some authors can get away with it if they first spend the time to get the reader emotionally invested in the characters and world. The fastest way to do this is to show what your character cares about then steal it or some part of it away. Show they love their family and then slowly reveal that their dad already died or show their horror as their sister is stolen from them. Then, your reader is along for the ride, even if there is a bit of dumping here and there.

[A Heart-shaped Hole: source]

Give us the character's heart then punch holes in it. We first see Percy Jackson's bond with his mom, then she's gone. We feel Harry's ache for a family long gone. MCU's Black Widow enjoys an idyllic childhood with loving parents for the first few minutes, then it's all shown to be an illusion, all of them separate quickly. 

[Let Your Readers Be Detectives: Source]

The other place a reader rarely wants a data dump is at the end. The beginning and end of any piece of writing are the most memorable. You don't want to start or end on a data dump. Even if you're writing a mystery, the truth should slowly sneak out over the course of the story. It may be summed up by the detective at the end, but if it all comes out in one dump, the reader may find this frustrating and poorly written instead of satisfied they were able to make some good guesses based on context clues. The ending is about an emotionally fulfilling wrap-up. 

[Invest Time and Emotion in Your Characters and World: source]

Information is good and necessary to telling stories. The backstory is critical in most pieces. But if it comes in a huge dump truck first thing, you'll rapidly lose readers. Invest us in characters and your world as the truth behind them comes out. Now, it's time to look through your pieces and spread out any info you find and make informed attributes into real attributes that tie your reader closer to the story instead of walling them out. 

Troping without Cliches

[Tropes in Writing: Source]

I've been blogging for over seven years, mostly about how to write in a more literary fashion.Tropes are everywhere in writing. In fact, a trope is a building block of writing. Any figure of speech can be called a trope. But when one thinks of a trope in a story, movie, or play, one thinks of a building block of a story such as a character or event in a story. Every story uses tropes.

[Trying to Avoid Tropes: source]

Even when one tries not to use tropes, it's practically impossible. There's even a trope for stories that are striving to be tropeless. It's impossible to avoid troping in a story. When one thinks of a character trope, one thinks of a type of character or plot device, the antihero, the plucky heroine, the sidekick, the man vs nature story structure, etc. However, what is possible is avoiding cliches with those tropes. For most people, the first idea is usually the cliche. If one pushes beyond that, that's where fresh stories begin.

[Tropes as the beginning of Ideas: source]

There are so many tropes that it's impossible to count and it all depends on the definition of a trope. But even if one focuses on character tropes, it would take a very long time to name all the available tropes. One can easily google them online. What it comes down to is that almost every character you will read about or see falls into one trope or another. The best books, literary or otherwise, don't simply plug in a trope and call it good. Authors of good books use tropes as a start but not an end. 

[Starting with a Princess in a Tower: source]

One of the main differences between good literature and simplistic stories is how much work the author puts into making the trope their own, making it something fresh. It's not enough to write about a simple princess in a tower, a damsel in distress waiting for her simplistic prince to come and save her as a dragon prowls its base. What makes her unique? How is he more than he seems? 

[Making a Trope Fresh: Source]

And, often better yet, how can the author flip the trope to make it something that feels new and fresh in order to stand out from the pack? One can simply flip the trope in the obvious way and have the damsel save the prince. One can have a prince or princess save the dragon or the dragon save one of the others. 

[Pushing the Trope further: Source]

Any of these can work, but you can push a trope further. Maybe the "princess" is actually a cowgirl, and the "prince" is a rancher in modern or period days, and the tower and/or dragon is metaphorical. Or maybe a literal dragon shows up in the wild West. Maybe the princess has sci-fi tech and has to steal the tower to take it somewhere to save her kingdom, fighting the mage prince and his training master, the queen of dragons, in order to do so. Maybe the tower, itself, has to fight the other three off to save itself. Who is the bad guy? Who is the good? Or are they all morally gray? Or perhaps anybody winning means the end of the world. 

[Now, it's your turn: source]

Think through your stories. Are you relying on simple tropes? Do you have a story that would benefit from pushing that trope and turning it into something fresh? If you use simple tropes, how can you make them unique?