Advanced Brilliant Writing: Make Your Plots Wider and Your Characters Deeper (Go! Write Something Brilliant) (12 page)

The flames crackled, spitting and popping as they devoured his life. The bull rider. The man Kitty claimed she believed in.

Then Rafe drew up his good knee, crossed his arms atop it, buried his head in them, and for the first time since his mother died—even during Manuel’s funeral, even in the dark months that followed—Rafe let himself cry.

I only have one physical action—Rafe let himself cry. But you feel his erratic emotions as his truck careens over the hills, and the despair as he tosses his life into the flames. I also throw in a metaphor—the fire making no distinction between fragile and hardy—meaning that heartache can happen to anyone. I hope you can feel his pain.

Book Therapist Trick:
When you’re exploring the action of your emotionally packed scenes, ask what is the
one
one
thing your character could do to convey the
main
emotion of the scene. Then, accentuate that and build your metaphor into that action.

Bring Your Characters Deeper

Take a scene of deep emotion in your current WIP and make it Soul-Deep.

Step one:
Find the one emotion you want to convey.

Step two:
What nouns, verbs and metaphors can you build into the scene to convey the emotion of your character?

Step three:
Is there another person in the scene you can use for character comparison?

Step four:
What is the one action you can do to convey the character’s emotional state?

Now, write the scene without naming the emotion!

The Colors of Emotion

Using Setting, Characterization and Action to convey emotion is only the first step. As the author, you need to go deeper. A great book doesn’t explore just the typical responses to say, grief or love, but goes deeper and explores the
Shades of Emotions
.

We all know the different phases of grief: Shock, Denial, Bargaining, Guilt, Anger, Depression, Acceptance. There are a plethora of books and movies about this process. Why? Because grief expresses itself in an array of emotional colors.

All emotions have colors to them.

Love has desire, hope, security, fear of change or loss, possessiveness, jealousy, generosity, patience and kindness.

How about Anger? Guilt, frustration, panic, loss, jealousy, power, helplessness. Even anger has an array of emotions.

Because any given emotion can feel unwieldy and large, picking a hue allows the author—and the reader—to focus on that one aspect and connect that particular hue, exploring the different aspects of that emotion for a deeper experience.

What about Darla’s emotions? She’s afraid. But in that fear is also hope for redemption. And jealousy that others aren’t afraid. She’s probably also panicky. And needy.

So, as an author writing her scene, I will draw out one those hues and accentuate it. Let’s use panic. And let’s illuminate it through action. I’m also going to throw in some characterization, and lots of strong verbs, nouns and metaphor.

Darla strapped herself into the seat, shoving her book into the pocket—not too deep. Outside the baggage handlers threw the suitcases like hot potatoes onto the ramp, as if sensing a countdown.

She sat back. Adjusted her belt. Pressed her fingers to the book. Across the aisle, the three seatmates were chatting, as if over coffee. The woman next to her had fallen asleep, and the passenger next to the window, oh, great—Amelia Earhart bobbed her head to her music.

The flight attendant’s voice boomed over the speaker. Darla fumbled through the pocket for the instruction card, then glanced over at her seatmates. They hadn’t moved. She yanked

the card from the adjoining seat, and slapped it onto the lap of the irresponsible woman next to her. Then she poked the be-bopper and gestured to the front.

She’d missed the first part about the oxygen masks. Wait! And how did they put them on—
wait!
She raised her hand, but the flight attendant didn’t stop. She waved it even as the woman moved onto a discussion about floatation devices. What floatation devices? She scraped her finger down the card, where—

A flight attended bumped down the aisle. Darla dropped the card onto the floor and lunged for her arm. She wrapped her whitened fingers around it in a death grip. “Remember the flight in California, where the oxygen masks didn’t drop?”

Every eye had turned to her. Even the be-bopper had pulled her buds from her ears.

And just then, the engines fired up. The sound tore through Darla like a scream, tearing through the passenger cabin and right into her bones.
Where was that oxygen mask?

The flight attendant pried her fingers from her arm, and twisted free. “I promise, we’re going to live through this.”

Yeah, sure they were.

The Anger hue I used was
Panic
, but note that I never mentioned the emotion. Instead, I used a metaphor of the hot potatoes to suggest the sense of panic from the baggage handlers. I also juxtaposed the casual demeanor of the other passengers, talking as if over coffee in Character Comparison, and I used a sound for the big emotional metaphor—the engines screaming—which is what Darla wants to do. But mostly I convey the action of panic through Darla’s actions, and finally her death grip on the attendant.

And note my use of verbs and nouns: Instead of tucking her book in the pocket, she
shoves
it in the pocket, instead of pulling the card out of the pocket, she
yanks
it, then
slaps
it down on the lap of her seatmate. She
pokes
the other woman. She
lunges
for the flight attendant. Even, the use of the tongue in cheek term,
Be-bopper
tells us that she’s annoyed that the seatmate isn’t paying attention. All these words contribute to building a scene that conveys her panic. These are color words and they illuminate her emotions.

Although I wanted to convey fear, it’s a big emotion to handle. Instead, I picked a hue to really focus on, and it strengthens the entire emotional impact. And, don’t worry about hitting the right color words on the first pass—that’s what rewriting and editing are all about.

A great book doesn’t tell a reader how to feel. It draws the reader into the scene, step by step, through information, physical responses, and metaphor, focusing on the right emotional hues and using color words to help immerse them reader into the vivid scene, so that they to can be red hot angry, or bluer than blue.

Book Therapy Trick:
Find the
main
emotion your character is experiencing, then break it down into its different hues. Pick one of those hues to focus on, using metaphor to connect your reader to that emotion.

Note:
I was talking with a client recently about MRU—Motivation Reaction Units. We were talking about what
order
to put the emotion into the scene. Here’s my advice:
Be the character.
If you are in his skin, what happens to you first—do you hear the information, or do you react to it? It’ll depend on the situation and the information relayed. The point is, if you want your reader to react with you, then you, the author, need to think beyond telling them how to feel, and bring them on the journey with your character.

Bring your Character Deeper

• Using the scene you just worked on, can you find the hue to accentuate in the scene?
  
• Rewrite the scene, focusing just on that hue. Does it make the scene even tighter? The emotion crisper?
  

Phew. Tired? I’m sure you are. Writing is hard work, and tapping into the emotional journey of your character is exhausting. Often, we have to tap into our own memories or reserves to adequately bring the right emotion to the page.

I’ll bet you’re thinking . . . wait, really? Do I have to do all this? Can’t I just write the character by the seat of my pants? Why do I have to plot it all out and add all those layers? Yes, the information about the emotional layering is helpful, but really, I see books all the time that don’t go that deep and they’re just fine.

Yes you do. They’re
just fine
. But, are we stopping at
just fine
? Or are we trying to connect with the reader in a way that stirs their heart, even their soul?

First—if you are not a plotting person, don’t worry. Most writers are a combination of plotters and pantsters. I myself like to plot the structure and journey of the story, then discover the scenes as I write them. I start out with scene goals and let the characters lose from there. But having a grid, or a flow for your character’s emotional journey, may help as a idea-starter, or even as a checklist after you’ve written the book to make sure you’ve included all the elements.

Also, if you’re wondering where to take your character next emotionally, try looking at his layers—is he ready to reveal another facet of himself?

Finally, when you write your scenes, just lay them out on the page. Then take them deeper, according to the type of scene and what you hope to accomplish. At least now you have some ideas and tools on how you might do this.

Writing a book is exhausting. And rewarding. And when you get a letter from a reader who says she laughed and cried and pondered her relationships with others, and God, then I promise, it’ll be worth it.

Don’t just be fine. Be
the Finest
.

Let’s press on and learn how to make our plots Wider!

Section Two: WIDE

A book with great characters will still fall flat with a predictable plot. We, as readers, want something that makes us look up from a book with our mouth open, our hearts racing as we wonder just how it could get any worse. Or why we didn’t see
that
coming? Or even shaking our heads at the amazing twist in the story. A great plot is a balance between the predictable and the unbelievable, one that makes the reader say, “Wow! What a story!”

But how do you develop those plot elements that leave the reader’s jaw dropping? How do you sprinkle into it those pieces that suddenly fit together at the end? How do you think “outside the box” with plot without going so far out that your reader says, “Oh, that couldn’t happen” and throws the book against the wall?

If you’ve read
From the Inside . . . Out,
then you learned how to develop a basic plot based on your characters wants, fears and dreams. Now, building on that, it’s time for some plotting pieces that will bring your plot wider, reaching out to include Subplots and Layers. In the WIDE section, you’ll learn how to insert those pieces early on that will fall in place in the final stages of your story. We’ll talk about the big picture plot, how to create scenes that make your hero heroic, and how to
to
ramp up the plot tension by reaching beyond the obvious, without drawing in the infeasible. You’ll discover how to keep that tension high with the balance of stakes versus motivation. You’ll learn the difference between a Subplot and a Story Layer, and when to use both, as well as the place of secondary characters in a story.

And then we’ll brainstorm scenes you might insert into your plot to widen it.

Then, as a bonus, we’ll talk Villains—how to create the perfect Villain, and their role in plotting your story.

Taking your story WIDE is about adding those secrets and techniques to your plot to make it something that leaves your readers not only surprised, but glued to the page until the wee hours of the night.

Let’s get started.

Why and Why Not?

Why is William Wallace (
Braveheart
) the perfect candidate to fight the war for Scotland’s freedom? Because he’s lost his wife, and he understands better than anyone what is at stake.

Why not? Because his grief could blind him and make him trust the wrong people. And, let’s not forget England is far superior in size and strength over Scotland.

Why is Dr. Richard Kimble (
The Fugitive
) the perfect hero to discover his wife’s murderer? Because if he doesn’t, he’ll be executed for a crime he didn’t commit.

Why not? Because he’s on the run from the police, and there is an investigator on his tail who is as savvy as he is. And that investigator doesn’t care about Dr. Kimble’s innocence.

Why is Frodo the perfect Hobbit to take the ring to Mt. Doom? Because he isn’t tempted to let the ring control him like the humans, elves and dwarfs are.

Why not? Because he’s a little Hobbit, unaccustomed to adventure.

Why and Why Not?
These are questions that should be posed at the beginning of every character’s journey. Romance writers use it for developing the connection between their hero and their heroine. But any good plotter uses it to develop their character’s journey. Without a Why Not, it’s too easy for your hero to succeed on their journey. Without a Why, there is no motivation for them to try.

The answers to Why and Why Not can’t be something frivolous or easy to dismiss. They must connect to the core of who the character is, some event they’ve experienced, or belief they have that propels them forward. The Why should be something so compelling they can’t turn away from it. The Why Not should feel insurmountable.

Let’s look as some other popular movies:

Why is Luke the only one who can stop Darth Vader? Because he is his offspring and the “Force is strong in him!” (Because only Luke can free his father).

Why Not? Because Darth Vader is his father, and the pull towards the Dark Side also flows strong in Luke!

Why is Jason Bourne the only one who can figure out his identity? Because only he has the desire to unlock his past—the agency wants him dead.

Why Not? The further he gets into digging into his past, the more it repels him.