Tag: writing technique

On Writing: General structure – Development

On By Jon UreñaIn advice, EscrituraLeave a comment

You can check out all my posts on writing through this link.

Once you’ve come up with a list of meaningful plot points that should happen in your story, the Acts structure (generally three, but could be strengthened by turning it into five) is a proven method to organize those plot points in a way that makes the story more cohesive, and usually building up in tension.

The following questions may help in developing the general structure.

  • Brainstorm the specific strategies and actions your hero will take to confront and antagonistic force (villain, threat or obstacle) standing in his way.
  • Write down a summary of what your hero does in pursuit of the goal, the major campaigns and efforts and confrontations he must navigate along the path toward resolving the dramatic question.
  • What is the antagonist’s plan in each act, what maneuvers does he execute to prevent the protagonist from achieving his goal? For each global goal in each act for the protagonist there should be a counterpoint by the antagonist(s).
  • How does the story consist of a great crisis, worked out through a series of minor crises?
  • How does this story involve characters being thrown into a world that represents the opposite of everything they believe and stand for?
  • Sometimes it’s easier to think of the structure in question-and-answer form. Q: What are the worst possible consequences of Macbeth’s decision to kill the King of Scotland? A: The massed ranks of his former allies will march upon him seeking revenge. Good structure will deliver a crisis point that forces the protagonist to choose between their old and new selves.
  • The beginning sets something up. It makes something move. What is a story trying to set up? The end, of course. The key to an effective beginning is that it must contain the seeds of your future climax.
  • How could the story start at the moment the problem becomes acute?
  • How would this story’s inciting incident embody all the characteristics the protagonist lacks?
  • Do away with the overly vague concept of the “inciting incident” and replace it with three specific parts: the long-standing personal problem, the intimidating opportunity, and the unexpected conflict that arises from pursuing that opportunity. Together these form what I call “the challenge”.
  • Rather than start with a happy status quo that gets ruined by an inciting incident, most stories begin the opposite way: The hero starts out with a long-standing social problem, and the inciting incident (even if it’s something horrible) presents itself as an opportunity to solve that problem.
  • Does the hero discover an intimidating opportunity to fix the problem? Simply restoring the status quo is never a strong motivation. In real life, as a general rule, our crises are not just temporary accidents that must be undone but crucial opportunities to fix long-standing problems. To build sympathy, the opportunity should be obviously intimidating. This shouldn’t be a no-brainer decision, but to avoid losing empathy, the full size of the potential conflict should not be immediately apparent.
  • Could you make sure that the inciting incident of the story is personal enough, that it isn’t defined externally? Otherwise the heroes would merely be reacting to outside events instead of choosing to act based on their volatile personal psychology.
  • First Plot Point preliminary: a definitive reaction to the first plot point will shape your character’s arc. You know you’ve found the right First Plot Point when it drags your character out of his former complacency and puts his feet on the path toward destroying his Lie–even though he probably won’t realize that’s what’s happening and, indeed, may be actively fighting that destination. Whether he realizes it or not, he has committed himself to change, even though he may still be trying to change in the wrong way.
  • How will the First Plot Point create a new world in which the character will be “punished” for acting according to his Lie?
  • A big crash usually happens at the midpoint. Not only does this change everything in terms of the external situation, but it slams the hero into a radically new outlook. The first half of a story can often be summarized as “the easy way,” and the second half as “the hard way”.
  • How would the midpoint contain the very essence of the quality the protagonist lacks, the opposite of their initial state, the “truth” of what they’re looking for, the hidden elixir in the enemy’s cave?
  • Could you make it so by halfway through, your heroes are making it up on the fly?
  • What happens (or will happen) in the climax of the novel that will show why your concept and kicker are unique and compelling?
  • Do your story’s beginning and ending contrast each other strongly enough?
  • If your protagonist had to face the events of the Climax in the beginning of the story, would he react to them in the same way he does at the end? If he would, something is seriously wrong with your story.
  • How do you misdirect the lowest points, the cliffhangers, or even the climaxes of each act? How do you make them impossible, or at least set up events in ways that make the reader feel that the story could have gone a different way?
  • Every roadblock, every obstacle, every setback, should escalate in difficulty. Start small and keep building.
  • Write a list of unexpected changes that might occur.

On Writing: General structure – Prioritary

On By Jon UreñaIn advice, EscrituraLeave a comment

You can check out all my posts on writing through this link.

Once you’ve come up with a list of meaningful plot points that should happen in your story, the Acts structure (generally three, but could be strengthened by turning it into five) is a proven method to organize those plot points in a way that makes the story more cohesive, and usually building up in tension.

The following are prioritary points of a story that need to be covered in each specific act.

Act 1 (the setup)

  • Hook / Disturbance
  • What is the flaw / need of the protagonist, and how do you show it?
  • What is the inciting incident of which the turning point of the first act will be its consequence? (problem)
  • A notion about what will happen at the First Plot Point. When those two things are on the table—the concept and a First Plot Point twist—almost everything that follows, both in terms of planning and execution, happens in context to them.
    • What is the accepting of the call, the turning point that launches the desire line?
    • How is a major force of antagonism through the story revealed?

Act 2 (the confrontation)

  • Character realizes external goal
  • Display of flaw
  • Drive for goal
  • Part Two Exposition (response, journey begins)
  • Antagonist revealed
  • First Pinch Point
  • What are the forces of antagonism and how do they escalate?
  • Midpoint / Mirror Moment. Does it involve the protagonist changing toward curing his flaw?
  • Revisiting flaw
  • New drive for goal
  • Antagonist attacks
  • Second Pinch Point
  • Part Three Exposition (hero becomes proactive) / Attack
  • What is the worst possible point, the worst possible consequence of the story’s inciting incident, and that will make the climax possible? (The Second Plot Point)
  • List the plot complications of the second act, that leave the protagonist worse off than she was before.

Act 3 (the resolution)

  • Changed goal
  • Part Four Exposition (hero becomes catalyst for…)
  • What have you envisioned as the climax? Does the protagonist do something heroic? Does he solve or not the problem?
  • Ending/Resolution

Important notes:

  • Successful planning is when the mission-critical story beats—Hook, First Plot Point, First Pinch Point, Midpoint, Second Pinch Point, Second Plot Point, and the Climax scenes—have been optimized.
  • Come up with the major crises that would make the act breaks, in which MC’s flaw causes him to choose a path that’ll drive him further into trouble, until he changes by his choice at the final crisis, if he changes at all. For each of those decisions, brainstorm which could be the worst possible consequences.
  • See what dilemmas there are at the end of each act and try to make sure they are real dilemmas. No easy answers.
  • Try to come up with crisis plot points that seem impossible to come out of.
  • Define the goals for each of the acts, and make sure each successive goal is bigger than the last.
  • List every climax of every act, try to come up with events or information that would have made them completely unpredictable or impossible, and try to use them for red herrings and misdirection.
  • Make sure each successive goal in your story gets bigger. Most amateur stories start out big then fizzle. How do you prevent this? By making each successive goal for your characters bigger than the last.

On Writing: Plot point generation #4

On By Jon UreñaIn advice, Escritura2 Comments

You can check out all my posts on writing through this link.

A story is made out of meaningful stuff that happens. Each unit of meaningful stuff that happens is often referred to as a plot point. Here’s how to come up with them, before you consider fitting them into a structure.

  • What hard, horrible, impossible choices could be made in this story?
  • Brainstorm instances in which your characters must brainstorm between goods or between evils.
  • What’s the worst that could happen in the story?
  • What’s the worst thing that could happen to your main characters physically?
  • What’s the worst thing that your character could ever have to deal with emotionally?
  • How could you create greater possible losses, more collateral damage?
  • How could you steal from a main character something very important for him?
  • What wonders could you show a main character that you would then take from him?
  • How could you create higher stakes, bigger risks?
  • What can the protagonist lose that she thought was vital?
  • Everything your protagonist does can have consequences. Their actions, decisions, causes and mistakes can be leveraged for tension. Think of consequences for actions you already know the protagonist will take.
  • Brainstorm events that will illustrate on what side of thematic concepts are different characters positioned.
  • What’s the most difficult decision they could ever make – the one thing they repent for the rest of their lives?
  • What is the worst thing they could do to someone else?
  • The worst thing they could ever do to themselves?
  • Is there an opportunity for a moral argument between hero and opponent, that gives the audience a clue about what values are really at stake?
  • Is there an opportunity for the main oponent to give a moral justification for his actions?
  • Think up escalating immoral actions your hero takes that hurts someone else. How are they outgrowths of his great moral weakness?
  • What plot point could make a character question his beliefs and goals?
  • Find a point in your story at which your protagonist is stuck, stymied, undecided, overwhelmed, or in some other way suffused with inner need without having a means to move ahead.
  • Often the trouble that brews is in the form of surprising information. Brainstorm bits of information that might be delivered as a surprise.
  • Is there opportunity for circularity, using a similar event but show the protagonist making a different choice?
  • Can you set up a contrast between a character who thinks he’s being moral, supporting the beliefs of the society, and the effects of those actions and beliefs, which are decidedly immoral?

On Writing: Scenes and Sequels

On By Jon UreñaIn advice, Arte, EscrituraLeave a comment

You can check out all my posts on writing through this link.

Without getting into complex structuring of a story (the act-based frameworks), you could produce a compelling story relying on a couple of alternating units: Scenes and Sequels.

I first came across the notion of Scenes and Sequels in Dwight V. Swain’s Techniques of the Selling Writer, which I read back when I was obsessed with writing technique. Jack M. Bickham expanded upon Swain’s notions in the book Scene and Structure, which I also recommend. The alternation of Scenes (action-driven) and Sequels (emotionally reflective), creates a rhythm of tension and resolution. Scenes drive plot; Sequels explore consequences.

A Scene is a unit of action where the protagonist pursues an immediate objective.

Goal: The character’s concrete, short-term aim (e.g., “Find the hidden map”).

  • Why it works: goals anchor the reader and create stakes.

Conflict: Obstacles blocking the goal (e.g., a rival steals the map).

  • Key detail: conflict should escalate through active opposition, not coincidence. It should be easy to determine if the conflict is meaningful: it should hinder the stated goal.

Disaster: A negative outcome forcing adaptation (e.g., the map is destroyed).

  • Purpose: avoids static victories; ensures ongoing tension. The disaster need not be catastrophic: it might be unintended consequences (e.g., gaining the map but betraying an ally).
  • It’s important to think of a disaster instead of plain resolutions, because a story should be composed of escalating tension. Setbacks help the story maintain momentum.
  • Ideally, a Scene’s disaster answers the dramatic question proposed by the goal (e.g., “Will the protagonist find the hidden map?”) with a resounding “No.” However, there are variations: “No, and in addition…” as in not only the goal fails, but something gets even worse. The disaster could be a “Yes, but…” However, you should avoid concluding a Scene with a plain “Yes,” unless it’s only a temporary “Yes” that doesn’t let the reader know what bad stuff the disaster has triggered in the future.
  • Each disaster should ideally worsen an overarching problem.

A Sequel processes the fallout of the previous scene’s disaster, focusing on inner turmoil.

Reaction: The character’s emotional response (e.g., despair, guilt).

  • Function: humanizes characters: show vulnerability before resilience. Offers opportunity for character development, emphasizing how that character reacts in an idiosyncratic way. Developing the emotional reactions prevents the characters from appearing robotic.

Dilemma: A problem with no good options (e.g., trust a traitor or go alone?).

  • Tip: dilemmas should test the values of the character or characters involved. Offers lots of opportunity for character development.
  • Dilemmas are often used to explore the story’s thematic questions (e.g., “Does ends justify means?”).

Decision: A new plan emerges (e.g., “Find the traitor and negotiate”).

  • Critical nuance: the decision must logically lead to the next Scene’s goal.

Alternating Scenes (fast-paced) and Sequels (slower, introspective) creates rhythm. Thrillers use shorter Sequels; literary fiction may elongate them for depth. Each Sequel’s decision becomes the next Scene’s goal, creating a chain reaction. This prevents episodic storytelling. Note: a Scene can be followed by another Scene, particularly when the context is clear, but a Sequel should always be followed by a Scene.

Keeping in mind the notion of Scenes and Sequels helps enormously when outlining a story: they force you to think in terms of goals, conflict, dilemmas, and setbacks, which are the fundamentals of a satisfying story.

In addition, knowing you’re writing a Scene helps you understand when to start its narrative: as close to the statement of the goal as possible. For example, if the character wants to convince another character to do something, you can start with the first character engaging the second, without much preamble. This is generally called starting in medias res with the goal already in motion.

Scene and Sequel ensure narratives remain driven by cause-effect logic and emotional authenticity, keeping readers perpetually engaged in the “what happens next?”

On Writing: Plot point generation #3

On By Jon UreñaIn advice, Arte, Escritura2 Comments

You can check out all my posts on writing through this link.

A story is made out of meaningful stuff that happens. Each unit of meaningful stuff that happens is often referred to as a plot point. Here’s how to come up with them, before you consider fitting them into a structure.

  • Is there a test that the protagonist could go through and that he doesn’t believe he can pass? What events would it suggest?
  • What does the protagonist have to confront to solve the problem set up for him?
  • What events could come up from bringing unresolved issues to the surface?
  • How could you push your characters to the limit?
  • Find that thing that your character would rather die than do, and make them do it.
  • Characters must confront the very thing they would least like to, and confronting this thing is a kind of hell. More precisely, it is their own personal hell. But through this confrontation, they are transformed.
  • How can you make the conflicts varied and surprising?
  • Imagine situations in which internal conflict will attack severely a character.
  • Disturbances don’t have to happen just at the beginning. You can sprinkle them throughout. When in doubt about what to write next, make more trouble.
  • Come up with a long list of obstacles and opposition characters that can be thrown in the lead’s way. Go crazy. When you’ve got fifteen or twenty of these, choose the best ones and list them in order from bad to worse to worst.
  • Does the conflict force the protagonist to take action, whether it’s to rationalize it away or actually change? Imagine what would you want to avoid if you were your protagonist, and then make her face it.
  • A story’s job is to put the protagonist through tests that, even in her wildest dreams, she doesn’t think she can pass.
  • Do expose your character’s flaws, demons, and insecurities. Stories are about people who are uncomfortable, and as we know, nothing makes us more uncomfortable than change. A story is often about watching someone’s house fall around their ears, beam by beam. Besides the fact that perfection is not actually possible, things that are not falling apart are dull. It’s your job to dismantle all the places where your protagonist seeks sanctuary and to actively force him out into the cold. But a hero only becomes a hero by doing something heroic, rising to the occasion, against all odds, and confronting one’s own inner demons in the process. It’s up to you to keep your protagonist on track by making sure each external twist brings him face to face with something about himself that he’d probably rather not see.
  • Don’t forget there’s no such thing as a free lunch. This is another way of saying everything must be earned, which means that nothing can come to your protagonist easily, after all, the reader’s goal is to experience how he reacts when things go wrong. Stories can help us expand the range of options in life by testing, in small increments, how closely one can approach the brink of disaster without falling over it. This means the protagonist has to work for everything he gets, often in ways he didn’t anticipate, much harder than anything he would have signed on for. The only time things come easily is when they are the opposite of what is actually best for him.
  • For maximum conflict, always put your hero in the last place he wants to be.
  • For some great conflict, place your characters in an environment that is their opposite.
  • The scene where a character must ask for help from someone he screwed over earlier always works.
  • You gotta throw your characters in the shit. You gotta kick them. You gotta demoralize them.
  • Take a character who hates something more than anything, then put him in a situation where he must pretend to love it.
  • Take a character who desperately wants to get somewhere, then have him held up by someone who wants to talk.
  • Deliberately write your characters into situations that are impossible to get out of, then figure a way to get them out of them.
  • Place your hero in plenty of “character emergencies.” A “character emergency” is when your character is placed in a situation where he has no choice but to act.
  • What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?
  • Think of ways to create lots of internal conflict (hard choices).
  • Who can betray the protagonist?
  • Make your characters clash. Think of ways of doing so.
  • How would the other character(s) and the world react to what the protagonist (or other characters) are doing?
  • How could you pull the rug out from under your protagonist when he’s at his most vulnerable?
  • How do you make it harder for your protagonist? See what bad thing could happen, and let it happen. Try to make it worse than he imagined it could possibly be, worse than you imagined it could be at first blush.
  • Look for conflict that flows from the plot, and that comes down to character, to character motivations, goals and reactions.

On Writing: Plot point generation #2

On By Jon UreñaIn Arte, Escritura4 Comments

You can check out all my posts on writing through this link.

A story is made out of meaningful stuff that happens. Each unit of meaningful stuff that happens is often referred to as a plot point. Here’s how to come up with them, before you consider fitting them into a structure.

  • Could weather create delays and accidents? Could it obscure vision, or make someone weak or faint?
  • What setting in your story could make some character to feel sad, fearful, nostalgic, angry, guilty, etc.? Think about the plot points that could be derived from that.
  • Find in your setting specific places that have extra significance, or places where events recur. To make a place iconic, make something big happen there.
  • Prior to the climax of the novel, find, brainstorm, try to apply six points at which your protagonist can demonstrate some heroic quality.
  • How will you show what your characters feel? What will express their thoughts? What will reveal their inner struggles?
  • Have your characters do things only they would do. Every character action represents that character. So when they act, have them act in a manner unique to them. Use every character action in your story to sell us on the unique nature of that character.
  • What events would reveal character?
  • Create stakes-raising dilemmas that give your protagonists opportunities to use their unique abilities. Let that explain why this character succeeded where others failed.
  • Can you allow characters to do the things that characters with different labels (protagonist, villain, etc.) would do?
  • How would a reflection character show the protagonist why and maybe how he can make it through the door, when he might slip back, have fear and doubt, second-guess himself?
  • Figure out plot points in which the allies are there for your hero, stick by him, speak truth in love, reflect back what the hero needs to see in order to understand and move one step closer to his goal?
  • In what plot point could the most “ally” character oppose your character regarding her goal?
  • Can you find a moment for each of your main characters to want the opposite of their hearts’ desire? Can you make it bigger, more emotional?
  • Where can you have characters say something other than what they mean (subtext)? Hint at something secret?
  • Can you find/add five places in your novel where a character acts rashly, inconsistently, contrary?
  • Imagine a moment when your protagonist is moved, unsettled or disturbed. This might occur when he’s facing a difficult choice, needing something badly, suffering a setback or surprise, having a self-realization, learning something shocking, or feeling in any way overwhelmed. Write down all the emotions inherent in this moment, both obvious and hidden.
  • What’s the biggest way in which your protagonist can act out? What can she destroy? Whom can she attack? What truthful thing can she say? What will shock others in the story?
  • Let your characters make mistakes: protagonists, antagonists, and secondary characters.
  • What events would push someone’s buttons relative to worldview and personal belief systems?
  • What would a character’s belief/past experience cause him to do?
  • What secrets does a character have, what lies he has told, to others and even to himself, that might cause plot point issues?
  • Think of plot points that would suggest the main character will get just more entrenched in his flaw, making it impossible to change, and others which suggest the possibility of changing.
  • What key moment in your novel showcases the primary reflection character/ally’s support?
  • What is your protagonist good at doing? Throw them the opposite of what they’re best at and make them deal with it.
  • Think up a moment in your novel in which the hero and the antagonist agree on something.
  • Think of a moment in which the antagonist is actually vulnerable and / or empathetic.
  • What is the primary antagonist and what key moment showcases the big conflict and issue between them?
  • The impact character may or may not be actively trying to get the protagonist to see that Truth, but he’s going to be there at crucial moments in the story to help the protagonist see the error of his ways. He has the answers the protagonist is looking for (even though the protagonist won’t know that at the beginning of the story), and those answers are going to end up being pivotal to the protagonist’s ability to conquer the antagonist and the external conflict in his quest for his story goal.
  • A character can’t change without something that impacts him by consistently and convincingly conflicting with his belief in the Lie.
  • What events could show off or amplify the inner journey?
  • Start by determining self-revelation, at the end of the story, then go back to the beginning and figure out the hero’s need and desire.
  • Brainstorm actions that prove the transformation.
  • Plant a redemptive action, the actions which could solve MC’s “fatal flaw”, and have the other person fail to do it.
  • Think of a way of showing a character’s change by putting him in a similar situation but acting differently, even to the point of disagreeing with his previous action in similar circumstances.
  • What event could bring about change for your protagonist?
  • What event could bring about change for a secondary character?
  • Throughout the story, the protagonist and his blind faith in his Lie are going to keep running smack into the impact character’s Truth. The protagonist may want to be left in peace with his Lie, but the impact character’s persistent presence keeps churning up the protagonist’s awareness of the Truth–and creating internal conflict.

On Writing: Plot point generation #1

On By Jon UreñaIn Escritura1 Comment

You can check out all my posts on writing through this link.

A story is made out of meaningful stuff that happens. Each unit of meaningful stuff that happens is often referred to as a plot point. Here’s how to come up with them, before you consider fitting them into a structure.

  • Imagine great scenes. See them in your mind and justify them later. Who are these people? Why are they doing what they are doing?
  • Take a stack of fifty or so index cards and start imagining scenes. Whatever picture comes into your head. When something vivid comes to mind, jolt the idea on a card. The notation may be as brief as: bar fight with biker.
  • Imagine memorable moments playing out on the big screen. What scenes would audiences talk about for years to come?
  • What are the things that frighten you? What would you usually try to avoid?
  • What events would provoke the greatest uncertainty in the reader?
  • How does the setting impact the characters, and viceversa?
  • Think of new events as actions taken by your hero or opponent.
  • Create a situation in which your exceptional protagonist is in over their head, feels unprepared, is simply lost, or in any other way must admit to themselves that they’re not perfect.
  • Think of what scenes you need in order to tell the story you have in mind.
  • What would the other major characters be up to, unseen?
  • Imagine scenes that add contrast to the motivations of characters, focusing on their differences regarding the actions, decisions, and attitudes. For example, two characters want to get control of an artifact, but while one character tries to negotiate their way to it, someone else intends to go in guns blazing.
  • Imagine moments in which your characters will change, be forced to make a choice, be pushed into despair.
  • Which plot points would be possible in this concept but almost in none others?
  • Picture a movie poster for your story. What one key scene is pictured on it that embodies your concept?
  • What iconic scene can you write in your story that will showcase the essence of the premise? How can you make it even bigger, more intense?
  • What events would hurt the important characters’ prospects?
  • Figure out what they want most, then put the things they fear most in their way.
  • Think about active events the villain might cause to thwart the good guys’ goals.
  • Can you put the object of desire of the scene’s driver in the room and have another character try to hide it?
  • What plot point could make a character rethink their decisions and goals?
  • What events would force the protagonist to deal with their inner issues?
  • What events would force a character to confront and deal with the issue that keeps them from achieving their goal, the thing that’s holding them back?
  • Brainstorm situations that force a character to confront their flaw.
  • What scenes would expose a character’s deepest secrets and most guarded flaws?
  • What scenes would force a character to confront their demons?
  • Use your action scenes to challenge your hero’s fatal flaw. This way, it’s not just about the action, but how that action affects your hero.
  • What scenes would show that a character is trying to overcome their flaws?
  • Figure out plot points in which an antagonist attacks a weakness, forcing that character to deal with it.
  • Which would be examples of how a character’s flaw limits their effectiveness?
  • What kind of events would test a character’s, particularly the protagonist’s, flaw to the max, in order to open their eyes?
  • Imagine an event in which a main character discovers, realizes, or is shown their inner need.

On writing: Conflict

On By Jon UreñaIn Arte, EscrituraLeave a comment

You can check out all my posts on writing through this link.

Do you have a killer concept, a promising premise, a protagonist worth a damn, a goal worth pursuing, and meaningful stakes? Then you should ensure that your characters won’t blaze through your plot unimpeded. Don’t allow them to tell you who they are: force them to prove themselves.

A warning, though: don’t inject unnecessary conflict into your story; Western narratives have been plagued with such for decades. If you can remove an instance of conflict without crippling some plot point, and that conflict isn’t funny, then drop it.

  • Figure out what your characters want most, then put the things they fear most in their way.
  • Is there enough conflict to sustain a story? Freewrite possible conflicts based on what you know about your story.
  • How is a character who goes after a desire impeded, and how does that force him to struggle?
  • What is the central (outwardly visible) conflict in the story? Who or what is preventing your protagonist from reaching her goal?
  • What opposing goals of other people or entities in the story provide conflict?
  • How is the drama the product of the values and ideas of the individuals going into battle?
  • How is the force of opposition present, and well defined?
  • How is the concept tied in with the central conflict of the story?
  • Is there at least one actual human being opposed to what the hero is doing?
  • How do you tailor your conflict to create the highest stakes possible for your protagonist?
  • How does the conflict force the protagonist to take action, whether it’s to rationalize it away or actually change?
  • How does the force of opposition allow the protagonist to prove his worth?
  • Test the big problem regarding how it impacts your protagonist’s arc, either making him change or making him worse.
  • How are at least two constituents weighed against each other in this story?
  • What unresolved tension in the story would make the reader want to see what happens next?
  • How is the conflict stress-inducing and/or painful?
  • How quickly can you introduce the central conflict element in your story?
  • How do circumstances beyond your protagonist’s control fling her out of her easy chair and into the fray?
  • Can you put your hero in the last place he wants to be?
  • What is the biggest obstacle preventing your protagonist form reaching her goal? How can you make it much worse? How can it push her into despair and hopelessness before the climax?
  • What strong inner conflict is your protagonist dealing with? Come up with two things she must choose between, both unthinkable. Tell how that showcases your novel’s theme.
  • Who challenges the views, actions, and beliefs of your protagonist in a way that involves your thematic elements? Make their opinions even stronger with higher stakes and greater conflict.
  • How would this story be considered a war?
  • Can you add emotional friction? Competing egos? Status struggles? Clashes of styles and personalities?
  • Can you come up with at least five minor, different conflict components you can add to your plot that exacerbate the central conflict of your novel?
  • What conflicting, multi-layered emotions hidden beneath the surface could be at play?
  • How do the conflicts in the novel warrant strong reaction?
  • What big stuff goes wrong with your heroes’ plan?
  • Can your protagonist’s external goal be in conflict with his internal goal?
  • Do you bring in the threat of a clear, present and escalating danger, not a vague facsimile thereof?
  • How are the impediments your protagonist faces potentially too great to be conquered?
  • What can make the goal more dangerous, more impossible to be reached?
  • How are you mean to your protagonist? How do you hold her soles to the fire, even when she starts to squirm?
  • How would this premise generate external conflicts and twists that would bring the characters with things about themselves that they’d rather not see?
  • Can you make the conflict bigger, much worse? List some possibilities and their outcomes.
  • Spend time thinking about the central conflict element in your story and all the different ways it can raise ugly heads to threaten and upend your protagonist. Try to pit as many things against him as you can, and push the stakes so that what he values most is at risk of being lost.
  • Whatever your hero has to do, make it hard. Every task for your hero must be difficult.

On writing: Stakes

On By Jon UreñaIn Arte, EscrituraLeave a comment

You can check out all my posts on writing through this link.

Do you have a killer concept, a promising premise, a protagonist worth a damn, and a goal worth pursuing? Then you should ensure that your characters gamble something meaningful on the outcome of their risky venture.

  • How is this story the record of how a character, through strength of will, fights with death? What combination of the three types of death (physical, professional, psychological) are at work in the story? Sum up the main plot with at least one of the three deaths woven into the summary.
  • Given how passionate the protagonist is about his goal, what is he willing to risk, what danger will he be willing to face, in order to reach the goal?
  • What are the things your protagonist loves and cherishes the most? Can you set up the conflict so that he stands to lose those as he goes after the goal?
  • How do you establish what does it mean for the character to achieve the goal stated for the desire line? The more the outcome affects your character, the more will be at stake. And the more that’s at stake, the more invested your audience will be.
  • When you think of high stakes to establish for your characters, how do the risks they take align with their nature, values and personality?
  • Can you make the stakes in your work even greater by adding a personal component, having them affect people we care about? In other words, this time make it personal. The more personal, the better.
  • If the protagonist does not succeed, what would be lost? Could he lose more?
  • Could it be for the protagonist that the thing at stake is what he values most?
  • How does the plot problem have a clear consequence that the reader can begin to anticipate from page one?
  • Who and what else will be adversely affected if the protagonist fails to reach his goal? Can you make it worse?
  • If at any point your protagonist can simply decide to give up without suffering great personal cost due to her inaction, consider that the story is wrong or insufficient.
  • How there will be something clear and definite that will occur if the protagonist fails or, worse, doesn’t take action? It can’t be vague, conceptual or iffy.
  • How can you make the reader care about the story based solely on those stakes?
  • What is the fight? How is it important and urgent enough for the reader to root for the hero to win?
  • How are the stakes measured by the value the protagonist puts on the thing at stake?
  • Is there a real-world, specific, impending consequence that this escalating problem will give my protagonist no choice but to face?
  • How would the reader feel the stakes, and what might be won or lost?
  • What happens if they don’t succeed? Stack the odds against.
  • Regardless of whether or not the protagonist achieves his goal, will the approaching consequence cost him something big, emotionally speaking?
  • How do you show clearly the consequences and price of success or failure and its ultimate effect on everyone involved?
  • How does the protagonist truly suffer to get through the story, both for the reader and for the character himself to care about what happens to him?
  • How will the character realize he’s probably going to die (physically, professionally, and/or psychologically)?
  • Does the protagonist find himself with no way out at some point in the story, making it the story not be on his terms?
  • How do you make the reader believe the threats in the story to your protagonist are real?
  • Make sure most of the characters involved in the goals have something to lose. Can you expand the stakes to all the characters?
  • How far can you muddle, push, exacerbate the situation to raise the personal and public stakes?
  • To increase the public stakes, meaning what impact will this story have on the world, ask yourself: how could things get worse than they already are? How could this matter more than it already does?
  • Make the external and internal stakes as big as they can possibly be.
  • How does the story walk us to the precipice of human experience and allow us to peer into the abyss?

On writing: My general rules

On By Jon UreñaIn Arte, EscrituraLeave a comment

This post will include the rules I wished I had followed since I started writing seriously when I was sixteen years old. I will emphasize some points that my younger self resisted.

I shall update this post whenever I come up with something else valuable.

If your subconscious nudges you with some idea or imagery that feels important, determine if it falls into a piece you’re working on or that you intend to work on at some point. Pay special attention to the “seed ideas” that the subconscious rarely provides, and that emerge with such strength that you know in your bones they will sprout a full story. In those cases, stop whatever you’re doing and write down all the details that linger in your mind. Do not let those ideas go: they’re the best ones you will ever get. If you don’t write them down, you will end up forgetting them. Most of the favorite parts of my stories come from notes that I don’t remember having come up with nor written down.

If your mind presents you with some idea or imagery that feels important but can’t be assigned to any project, it’s not necessary to write it down. Plenty of these rogue suggestions resurface later, sometimes years later, tangled with other ideas or imagery that could be categorized. Let them simmer.

Your subconscious is the one entity in this world that you can fully trust. Like Cormac McCarthy put it, “[It has] been on its own for a long time. Of course it has no access to the world except through your own sensorium. Otherwise it would just labor in the dark. Like your liver. For historical reasons it’s loath to speak to you. It prefers drama, metaphor, pictures. But it understands you very well. And it has no other cause save yours.” Always pay attention to its advice.

As you work on a project, go through your notes for it with the goal of reordering them chronologically. If you aren’t sure about where in your story an event is supposed to take place, arrange them in order of escalating tension. Do this from time to time, because some notes will end up moving around significantly.

When you’re working on a scene or a chapter, go through your notes and isolate them in logical blocks that you should be able to coalesce in about five to ten minutes of freewriting. Add as many notes as necessary to that block so that you won’t need to know anything else about the rest of your story while you’re busy rendering that part of the scene.

Once that next block of the scene or chapter you’re working on contains all the necessary elements, render the block through freewriting. Do not ever sit down in front of your keyboard and try to come up with one word after another: that puts your conscious mind in control, the part of your brain that should only be in charge of putting together coherent sentences from raw material, and of revision. It will also end up making you hate the act of writing, which should be a labor of joy.

The way you force your subconscious to produce the raw material is through freewriting. Put on some mood-setting music, open videos and/or photos relevant to the block you will work on. I usually change the size of my windows in the PC to ensure that all the necessary parts fit on the screen at once. Then, while you play the notes in your mind as if they were part of a movie, type as fast as you can, coalescing what you’re sensing and feeling into a mass of raw material.

By “as fast as you can,” I literally mean it: banging your keys or repeating nonsense in case your brain can’t come up with some particular word, making enough grammatical and syntactic mistakes to make a teacher cry. Do not allow your fingers to stop. The goal is to bypass the slower conscious mind to access the much faster subconscious, the same way as you would while playing an instrument. You do not stop in the middle of playing a song because you don’t remember a specific note, or because you have just played the wrong one. If the end product of your freewriting session resembles the verbal diarrhea of a complete lunatic, then you’ve done it right: your subconscious isn’t sane, but it has survived for much, much longer than human beings have existed.

Once you end up with the raw material of a session of freewriting, let your conscious mind sieve through the outrageous nonsense, then arrange the fished-out meaningful words into coherent sentences.

Freewriting is also invaluable when you aren’t sure what details to produce out of a moment, or what feelings your point of view character would experience. Freewrite about it for a set amount of time, usually five minutes. In the process you will get the obvious out of the way, and your subconscious will provide some gems.

Beware the ladder of meaning. For example: entity > object > building > house > cottage > an English cottage with thatched roofs, a sprawling garden, and stone walls covered in ivy. Always try to include in your texts elements from the highest rung of the ladder of meaning. If you intend to include an element from lower rungs, justify its presence in the piece. Why would you mention an element that doesn’t warrant detailing?

If some sentence, or a whole paragraph, feels awkward, improve it until it doesn’t. If you can’t improve that element further and it still feels awkward, try to remove it from the text. If the text doesn’t start creaking, threatening to fall apart, leave that element out. If you have improved it to the best of your abilities and still feels awkward but you can’t take it out of the piece, forgive yourself and move on.

Do not ever leave in your story a sentence, or even a word, that’s not pulling its weight. Whatever you leave in that doesn’t need to be there detracts from the whole.

Base your sentences around specific nouns and vigorous verbs, both of which should generate imagery in your mind. Try to avoid forms of “to be” and “to have,” unless the alternative sounds more awkward.

Avoid clichés. A cliché is every single expression you have heard before. I don’t recall which books on writing said it, but it’s been proven that your brain doesn’t engage meaningfully with sentences it has read or heard a million times, the same way you don’t truly look at stuff you see every day. Your brain mainly reacts to surprise, in case it needs to fend off an attack. Your goal is to create something new with every sentence.

Show, don’t tell. What does that mean? When in doubt, ask “What’s the evidence of that?” If asking that question of a sentence or paragraph makes sense, then you’re telling. If it doesn’t, you’re showing. For example: “The woman was beautiful.” What’s the evidence that she’s beautiful? You’d go into specific details of her allure that would make your point of view character (important: not you) feel that she’s beautiful. And once you’ve added that explanation in, remove the sentence “The woman was beautiful.” You don’t need it.

You can violate any of the above rules if you’re going for a specific effect. For example, it’s not uncommon to use clichés (meaning any expression you’ve read or heard before) as part of your characters’ speech, because that’s what people do. You can also violate any of the above rules if the result would be funny.

Number one rule: offer the most meaning with the least amount of words. Don’t waste people’s time, starting with your own.