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These are my personal tips for NaNoWriMo. You know the drill. Take only what works.<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
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Plot and character are symbiotic.<\/span><\/div>\n
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I write plot driven stories, and I know my Tips here reflect that. That\u2019s because I\u2019m just writing down as \u201ctips\u201d the things I myself am doing as I work on my novel. My own bias is embedded in the techniques I highlight. <\/span><\/div>\n
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At some point, though, even the most plot-crazed author needs to look into the hearts of the characters. That\u2019s really where the power of the story is going to reside, in the end. Other writers start with character from the get-go and then figure out plot as it arises from the wants and needs of those characters. By the end of the process, if you\u2019ve done it right, the reader shouldn\u2019t be able to tell where you started.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Often, though, you\u2019ll start strong with one and have no inkling about the other. You\u2019ll have an awesome, well-rounded character but no idea what to do with her, or an awesome, action-packed plot populated by paper dolls.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Starting From Plot<\/span><\/b>: <\/span><\/div>\n
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Suppose you have a typical McGuffin thriller plot, a terrorist plan to nuke Las Vegas. Maybe your thriller is also a bit of a mystery\u2014it\u2019s not clear which terrorist group is planning this. Perhaps the real villain is a crazed Elvis Impersonator who believes he\u2019s bring about the End of Days. Or maybe it\u2019s Basque Separatists who want to make Nevada their new homeland. <\/span><\/div>\n
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There are two ways to write this. One, the hard way, is to guess yourself as you write, and then after you\u2019ve accumulated a huge sloppy mess of plot twists, go back over your draft and try to make it all fit.<\/span><\/div>\n
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I\u2019ve done this. I don\u2019t recommend it.<\/span><\/div>\n
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The problem is that you may start writing a character one way, say, as the good guy\u2019s friend, and then suddenly decide that since the friend is the last one anybody would suspect of being Elvis Incarnated, have him be the terrorist. This only works if you\u2019ve known all along that\u2019s who he really is. Otherwise, you\u2019re going to end up with your characters coming off like puppets on plot strings. The reader is the one who will feel like you\u2019re yanking their chain.<\/span><\/div>\n
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This is not to say that you can\u2019t let plot needs dictate your cast of characters. It can. As long as you figure it out first, so you can breathe life into those characters and let them take the reigns of the finer plot points. That way you can have your cake and eat it too: a plot driven story that still arises organically from the characters\u2019 desires and designs.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Take a hard look at your beat sheet, and ask yourself, what roles do I need in this story? You\u2019ll have your protagonist, obviously. You may have a romantic interest. You may not want a villain, but even if you don\u2019t, you\u2019ll need need an antagonist\u2014it may be the romantic interest or the hero\u2019s mother or best friend, someone who is not a villain in the sense of being evil, but who, for whatever reason, is stopping the hero from achieving his goal. For instance, perhaps you have science fiction story in which the hero\u2019s dead professor has bequeathed him a brain chip from an alien ship. The hero\u2019s only hope of saving the earth is to download the chip into his brain, but the professor died trying this, so the hero\u2019s father hides the chip rather than give it to the hero. The father is the antagonist, even if he is motivated by love.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Your story may require other roles. If your hero needs to learn to be a Jedi, he\u2019ll need a Yoda. If someone on the team is a spy for the bad guy, you\u2019ll need the spy and perhaps another character to unfairly take the blame for being the spy. In a murder mystery, you need a lot of characters to provide suspects. In a horror story, you need a lot of characters to provide victims.<\/span><\/div>\n
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It\u2019s easy to make your early outline too vague to alert you to what roles you need. For instance, suppose you\u2019ve written on your plot card: \u201cThe hero tries to enter the compound, but fails.\u201d That could mean a lot of things. It could mean he realizes the fence is electrified so he turns back. It could be a lot of faceless guards shoot at him and he has to retreat. Or it could be that the Big Bad\u2019s chief minion kicks his butt with humiliating ease and spares him only so he can live a life of shame knowing he was beaten.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Faceless minions (known as spear-holders) have their place in a story, but be wary of filling your book only with your hero and an army of mindless monsters. Yes, yes, I know this is the premise of a lot of zombie movies, but I stand by it. It\u2019s boring. It\u2019s much better if you can seize moments of conflict in the outline and make sure those are fleshed out by flesh and blood characters, with motives and personalities of their own, to oppose or seduce or bewilder the hero.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Starting From Character<\/span><\/b>: <\/span><\/div>\n
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What wound makes this character incomplete? What would heal her? That\u2019s her inner goal. If you have a strong idea for the character, you might already have a good grasp on her inner wound and inner world:<\/span><\/div>\n
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What does she fear most? (Make her confront it.)<\/span><\/div>\n
Who has hurt her? (Let her pursue revenge or reconciliation.)<\/span><\/div>\n
What has she sworn never to do? (She needs to do it or be tempted to do it.)<\/span><\/div>\n
In what arena is she an expert? In what arena is she a failure? (Example: She\u2019s a fantastic brain surgeon, but was recently divorced by her husband, who complained she was an emotional snowcone.)<\/span><\/div>\n
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If you\u2019re still tempted to answer these questions in general or purely psychological terms, you may be in trouble. For instance, say you answered the question about your heroine\u2019s greatest fear with the observation: \u201cHer greatest fear is being a failure, because she is always trying to live up to her mother\u2019s impossible demands for perfection.\u201d And you will know she\u2019s been transformed when she allows herself to make mistakes and be forgiven by someone she loves. <\/span><\/div>\n
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That\u2019s great, but does it give you a plot? Not obviously. <\/span><\/div>\n
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She also needs an outer goal, the concrete achievement she will strive for or complete as \u201cproof\u201d of her inner transformation. You need to take that amorphous psychological goal and give it a physical component. For instance, if someone hurt her in the past, it helps to know not just who but in what field of achievement does she compete with the person who has hurt her? <\/span><\/div>\n
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The whole point is to give higher order emotions grounding in living metaphors. Higher order needs include Love, Belonging, Forgiveness, Power, Truth and Wisdom. But unless these are embodied in physical avatars within your story, the only way to convey to your readers that the heroine has achieved them is to Tell them so rather than Show them. You already know that\u2019s a Big No.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Take those ineffable emotions and make them effable. Give your story a Race, a Competition, an Auction, a Deadline, a Bet, a Bargain, a Promise, a Secret, a Lie, a Journey, an Heirloom, an Object. Tie it down in space and time, stamp an expiration date on it, and let your characters fight over it.<\/span><\/div>\n
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