The Hero With a Thousand Faces

My struggles with the project prompted me to jump out of writing and back into research again.  I was at a loss trying to figure out what else I could do. I still like the ideas behind my story but bringing the idea to life simply was not working.  The characters were not developing like I wanted and organizing the plot into a solid narrative structure seemed impossible.  Giving up did cross my mind.  I do have plenty of projects in the works without stressing out over this.

Instead, I think a short break is in order. I need to learn more about what I am doing. I want to learn more.I am not taking about learning how to write or learning structure. I want to learn what makes a story compelling. What are the underlying mechanics that move the story and drives interest. I am not talking about character, tone, symbolism, or narrative structure.  Or maybe I am. I don't know.  I think there is a deeper mechanic or mechanics that I am missing.  What is it? I don't know.

So I decided to spend some time finding out.  I may play with this project off an on but my focus right now is to learn.  My first sub-goal in my new focus on learning - read the Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. Why? It seemed like a good place to start.

Zip, Nada

I am not completely sure what happened. Sure I had some busy moments at work but overall things were slow during the last month or two.  There was no drama at home or excessive traveling. In short, there are no excuses for not making progress.  I did work on this project a little in late May but I hardly even thought about it in June.  I did not want to mess with it.

Why?

Here is my best guess.  I hit a big snag with the protagonist.  I spent a lot time developing his personality and back story and making him feel like a real character.  Then I realized that I did not really like the character.  I knew I wanted him to have some strong negative traits and I wanted him to have a self-destructive streak.  What I ended up with was an unlikeable character that was…well…boring. 

I knew there were other problems. To be more specific, I knew there were problems with the plot.  I am not referring to plot holes. I am ok there so far.  My problem is with narrative flow.  I really struggled with working with a standard three act structure.  It’s a big problem but one I think I can work through.  The problems with the main character hit me harder.  I really did spent a good bit of time on him and now I feel like I need to start from scratch.  I think that threw me off and I think I just did not want to deal with it.

Maybe I needed the time.  Maybe I needed to let it sit for a while and come back to it.  What does the future hold for the project? I don’t know. I do know that I am not giving up.  The idea is still there and desire is still there.     

Delays, Delays, Delays

The title pretty much says it all.  Sure, I could come up with reasons (excuses), but they do not matter.  The reality is that I made very little progress over the last week and a half.  Here is what I accomplished:

A detailed written biography of the protagonist.  This was not as difficult as I imagined.  I guess I already had a good idea of who I wanted the character to be and his background.  I wrote a one page personality outline and a ten page detailed biography.  Maybe that was a little too much.  It was a good experience and I feel much more comfortable working with the character.  I have a few concerns about the character but I will save those for later.

A verbal biography of the second main character.  I had to be on the road for about 5-6 hours the weekend before last and I remembered to bring a voice recorder this time.  I started working on the second most important character.  He is a little more difficult.  I know the purpose I want him to serve in the story and I know the basic personality traits I want him to have.  Beyond that, the character feels a little bland.  I know every character in fiction does not need a dramatic background, especially if the character is meant to be an “average Joe”, but average Joe is not developing into an interesting character.  Rather, he is not interesting yet.  I am not sure whether he needs a re-write or whether I can find the interest in the situation itself and the character’s reaction to the situation.  The answer is probably a little bit of both.

A verbal biography of a couple of secondary characters.  One of the appeals of this story is that it does not have a large cast of characters.  I think that makes the story more manageable.  Even with a limited cast, there is still a need for secondary characters.  I verbally walked through two of them.  They are not nearly as detailed as the two main characters.

A verbal walkthrough of the Prologue and Act One.  I know I jumped ahead a little with this step but I felt myself burning out examining the characters and needed to work on something else.  Act One still feels like it is wandering around a lot.  Things happen, but I feel like there is a lack of focus.

I have not transcribed any of this from the voice recorder yet.  That is on the to-do list for this week.  When I read back over the above I do feel like I made some progress.  However, my energy/interest level in this project was all over the place and I cannot help but feel like I am behind where I want to be.  I think part of this is because I seem to be unable to get work done during the week.  All of that was done over a weekend.  I guess that is fine, but I really want to spend time during the week working too.  Just working on the weekends and even then only working when I am on the road or have free time is going to turn this already long-term project into an extremely long term project.  My idea of allotting two hours a day to writing has failed miserably.  What about allotting larger chunks of time but fewer times per week?  As long as I can get my must-do projects done on time for my day job that might work.  I am going to have to think about this and see if I can come up with some solutions. 

A to B to C

Ahhh, the satisfaction of progress.  No, I am still not writing the story but I have made progress in the planning stage.  I dabbled some in character biographies and deciding on themes and symbolism, but today we will discuss plotting the…plot.

I said in the previous post that I plan to follow a basic three act structure.  This is not some special revelation created by me.  The three act structure for story telling has been around for a very long time and most of the writing research websites I referenced recommends it.

 I will also have a short prologue and epilogue.  Does every story need a prologue and epilogue? I do not think so.  I do think my story needs them however.  There are a few introductory elements that I think do not fit on my act 1 and there are a few closing events that do not fit in act 3.  They are very short so they will not require their own acts.  I guess they will take about a chapter each.

After deciding on my basic structure, I needed to fill out each act and decide which plot events will go where.  It sounds easy, but it was actually a pain in the nether region.  I knew the basic premise pretty well, I had a firm grasp on the characters, I knew the important events, and I knew where I wanted the characters to end up.  It should have been easy to put that all together.  It was not easy.  I started to notice blank space.  I wanted the character to start here with this event then end up at this place with that event.  Between the two events…well…blank space.  Part of the issue involved gaps in the main plot.  Not plot holes per se, but rather a lack of natural plot progression.  The other part of the problem involved dead time for characters even when the main plot was progressing.  Also, none of it fit cleanly into a 3 act structure.  This was going to be a problem.

It was a little frustrating but it was also kind of fun.  It was just a problem that had to be evaluated and worked through.  It is this kind of problem solving that attracted me to the practice of law.  I tabled the problem for most of yesterday and did not picked it all back up around 8:00 last night.  I re-reviewed my research on plot structure and exactly what each act should generally consist of:

Act 1 introduces the main characters, introduces the world, and introduces whatever problems the main character faces.

Act 2 increases the pressure on the character. It solves some problems but the characters are faced with new problems – bigger problems.  The main plot devise, or question, or conflict builds.

Act 3 is the climax.  Everything should point to the final peak of the main plot.  If this were an action movie, this is where you would see the biggest explosions.  If this were a romance movie, this is where the guy tries that last-ditch crazy thing in the hopes of winning the girl.

A little simplistic? Sure, but it nails the big ideas. You also need mini events, smaller peaks and valleys through each act to keep the reader going and you need strong transitions between the acts.  Please note that I am not taking credit for the above breakdown.  It came from my research (see my research post).

After re-reviewing my research I was still having trouble visualizing everything and what should go where.  I look large poster size sticky sheets (I cannot for the life of me remember what they are called) and placed 5 on the wall. I labeled them Prologue, Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, and Epilogue.  I then started writing down each major plot point and each major scene I could think of.  I placed them in the sheet where I thought they fit best.  I made a note for each event that impacted the theme and symbolism of the story and I wrote down questions that I wanted to reader to ask throughout each act.  It was a bit of a mess and very much out of order.  Everything was color-coded so that helped.

That is when I noticed there was a huge balance issue between act 1 and 2.  The way I organized the events, there was a lot to cover in act 2 and act 1 was a little bare.  It left me trying to fill voids in act 1.  I moved some things over and created a much better transition between the acts.  I then re-wrote everything in a word document in an outline format and in order.  It looked good.  It flowed naturally (for the most part), and felt balanced.

I is still not perfect and I am sure things will change as I work through them but I feel like I have a map to follow now, and when you are traveling through new territory having a map feels really good.

Planning, Planning, Planning

I just noticed that the font of this blog changed from arial to times new roman.  I am not sure why I made the change and I am not sure which one I like better.  Oh, well.

As much as I want to jump in and start writing the story, I know I need to go through some preliminary steps first.  I need thorough character biographies.  I need a rough outline of the plot from beginning to end.  I need to decide on the tone, theme, symbolism, voice and narrative style I want to use.  Sure, I could skip some of these steps and just start writing, but there are some drawbacks to the “just sump in at start writing” approach. 

First, I do not think the quality can be there.  Yes, I generally know what I want to write and I generally know the characters.  However, I think without an in depth knowledge of who the characters are and where they are going I cannot write with the level of detail that I desire.  I think a key difference between a believable character and a character that amounts to window dressing is having a fully realized and fully understood character from the beginning. 

Second, and connected to the first point, jumping in and just writing will probably result in a need for major re-writes in the future.  Sure, all rough drafts need revisions but better rough drafts require less work than crappy rough drafts.  If my rough draft is not consistent with the characters or consistent in tone, it is going to need a lot of work.

Third, and connected to the first and second point, I run the risk of whole chunks of my writing being thrown out.  As much as I may like a particular scene or plot point early on in the book, if it fails to work in the overall narrative, if it contradicts later aspects of the plot, or if it just does not feel right after getting to the middle or end of the book, it needs to be cut.  Sure, I always run that risk when writing and it will probably happen some no matter how well I plan, but I think careful planning can lessen the significance and the quantity of the cuts.

All three of these points are especially poignant for me because of my inexperience with writing fiction.  Maybe I could just skip to writing if this was my 15^th book and I knew the process back and forth.  Maybe I would know enough to avoid inconsistencies, flat characters, and plot holes.  Since I am not that experienced and I do not know this process like the back of my hand I need to plan, plan, plan.

However, planning cannot equal procrastination.  Just like research, it is tempting to get stuck planning forever and never actually write.  I think the best way to avoid this scenario is self awareness.  Be aware of the tendency to procrastinate and the tendency to get stuck.  Another thing to do is break the planning process down into steps and be aware of the amount of time you spend on each step.  If you start getting stuck or spending too much time on one step, skip it and come back to it.

Here is my “Planning Plan” at the moment:

Plot Outline

The plot outline will be in a three act structure with a possible prologue and epilogue.  The entire plot needs to fit into that structure and be easy to understand.  Yes, the plot can be complicated if you wish, but I think (and from what I’ve read) the three act structure still needs to be clear.  The plot outline does not have to include every single chapter or scene at this point but I think it should include the important events for the plot.

Character Bios

Every primary, secondary, and tertiary character needs a biography.  This helps flesh out the characters from the beginning and will hopefully help me avoid character behavior inconsistencies as the story progress.  I think the level of detail will vary.  The protagonist will need a thorough bio.  Any other primary characters probably will too.  Secondary characters will need a solid bio that covers the important parts of their lives.  Tertiary characters will need just enough to keep their actions and behaviors consistent.  

Style

I lumped a few things together in this step.  I think I need to decide my general style of writing from the beginning.  This includes voice, tense, narrative, even word choice.  There is not much more to this step.  I need to make the decisions, write them down, and stick to them.

Tone, Theme, and Symbolism

I again lumped a few different things together for this one.  All three of these generally reflects the feeling the reader gets from the story.  What emotion do they consistently get from the novel?  What larger ideas do they get from the novel?  What connection does the reader get between the novel and things in the real world?  I think these are very important.  They make the difference between something that is just a story and something that has meaning.  Why do these have to be chosen from the beginning? Consistency, and from consistency we hopefully find clarity.  All three of these concepts are under the hood of the novel.  They are not automatically in the face of the reader.  They are subtle.  Because of that, it is very easy for them to fight against each other and confuse the reader if they are not consistent.  I think I will need to spend a little time of this step.  My story has issues with all three.  I think I may approach this step as a sort of college essay: analyze the tone, themes, and symbolism found in the following story.

Maybe then I can actually get to write the story I want to write.  Who knew being an author was so much work.

A Decision Made

Yes, I am late again.  I am still trying to work out a schedule for these updates that I can commit to regularly.  I do not expect my schedule to be too crazy for the next month or so.  It certainly will not be as crazy as the last couple of weeks.  So I do not have much an excuse if I get behind again.

Last Friday and Monday I spent about a combined seven hours on the road.  Maybe a little more.  This was great time for me to focus on this project.  I do my best thinking while driving.  I went through each of my ideas and mentally listed the strengths and weakness of each.  I evaluated the story itself, the story structure, the uniqueness of each story, the characters, possible themes and symbolism, possible plot holes and pitfalls of each, and my ability to write each story.  I broke the stories down into Acts and evaluated some of the more compelling scenes in each act.  It was exactly what I needed to do to determine what story I want to write.  It suuuuure was a shame I could not write any of it down!  I definitely need to bring a audio recorder with me on those trips.  Yesterday afternoon I went through everything again in my office and did my best to get it all written down.  I had mixed success. I recalled maybe ¾ of it, maybe a little less.

After all of that I still did not have a decision.  I had a top three, slightly different than my original top three, and I was still learning towards one story over the rest but I was not sure.  All the work I did above actually reinforced many of my doubts.  I started to see great opportunities for compelling themes and symbolism that I previously overlooked. I felt stuck again and I was a little frustrated at myself.   

The solution hit me as I was driving home from work yesterday.  Of course it would occur to me while driving.  I realized that my perspective on this “choosing an idea” process was a little off.  The question was not “which story do I want to write?”  The question was “which story do I want to write first?”  That little word makes all of the difference.  Even though I knew I could write any of these stories later, or all of them later, that was not the way I framed the choosing process and that is certainly not how it felt.  I felt as if I was giving up on the potential of these other ideas.  If not chosen, they would fade away into nothing.  Everything changed with the question “which story do I want to do first?”  You can think of it this way.  In my old mindset I was on a road trip and I could only choose one destination before returning home.  In my new mindset I am on a road trip and I only need to choose what will be my first destination.  A choice must still be made, but the pressures are different.

With my new perspective on the problem the answer was rather simple.  I chose my idea in a matter of minutes.  I still have strong feelings about my other stories and it is important to me that they do not fade away into oblivion, but I am more confident now that they will not fade away.  They will remain.

Another thing I had to realize was that I was not choosing a story that was perfect.  There are problems with each story and there are a couple of big ones with the story I chose.  The biggest problems I see at the onset of the project involves tone, theme, and symbolism.  However, discussion of those topics can wait for another day.