 | 4 Dec 08 |
I love collecting phrases I can use as shorthand to remind myself of writing principles. I was reminded of this yesterday when I read Jenny Crusie’s blog, Argh where she discussed the concept of Black Swans. She mentioned it had been used on an episode of NUMB3RS, but gave the Wikipedia explanation:
The term black swan comes from the commonplace Western cultural assumption that ‘All swans are white’. In that context, a black swan was a metaphor for something that could not exist. The 17th Century discovery of black swans in Australia metamorphosed the term to connote that the perceived impossibility actually came to pass. The [Black Swan] theory was described by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his 2007 book The Black Swan . . . . Taleb’s Black Swan has a central and unique attribute: the high impact. His claim is that almost all consequential events in history come from the unexpected—while humans convince themselves that these events are explainable in hindsight (bias).
I had not heard of Black Swans–or the concept described–in just this way before, and it illuminated for me how to do something in my own work-in-progress. There’s a great discussion over there which shows a fun brainstorming process. The concept reminded me of a couple of principles of good writing technique:
- Whenever I’m brainstorming for an answer, don’t limit myself to the first or second choice just because they’re logical. Often, those choices are also predictable and, by their nature, make the story smaller because it is less surprising.
- This is not to say that every story needs a Black Swan moment or tuning point, but every time I write, I need to stretch my imagination, back my characters into a corner and then force myself to be creative in the solution.
- A Black Swan moment is a moment that the character couldn’t conceive of as possible–but the writer still has to make it very probable for the reader to buy into it. In other words, that moment has to be grounded in what the reader will understand, and if we’re going to take them to a place of the impossible, we have to build the story with enough “proof” along the way so that they will accept the impossible as real *for those characters*.
A second phrase I like is one many of us have become familiar with due to Blake Snyder’s book is “Save The Cat.” While Blake uses that as the jumping off point for his book (wherein he gives an excellent set of principles for story structure for screenplays–highly useful and adaptable for books), the phrase simply refers to the moment when a normally flawed, difficult-to-like character has a humane thought or action which allows us to give them the benefit of the doubt. A moment which fleshes out the angry, bastard of a hero and says “This person can be redeemed… trust me here, he’ll be awful for a while, but there’s hope.” It’s also the kind of moment that keeps villains from being a caricature of evil–an action which shows them as really human, capable of hurting, capable of loving, capable of having friends, in spite of being truly, utterly, flawed and broken.
The danger of a “save the cat” moment is twofold:
- It can be saccharine and immediately undercuts the power of the character.
- It can then make the ending predictable, if too obvious, because if we’re implying that a character is redeemable, we’re foreshadowing that they will be redeemed.
Balance, then, if the key (perhaps obviously).
A third phrase I like to remember was introduced to me by my friend, Diane Patterson. Diane was talking about a character who had too many quirks going on for one character, and she referred to this as having “too many cats.” There’s a real danger when developing characters to want to paste together a bunch of traits, quirks, hobbies, habits, etc., and call that “character”–because these things give us something to describe. Or give the appearance of making a character “colorful” and therefore “memorable.” I like to extrapolate on that meaning to encompass the times when there are just too many story-lines, too many train-wrecks going on at one time in the lives of all of the characters, simultaneously.
The driving force of any story is character need vs. obstacle. There may be several shades to that need, several things which happened to the character which makes this need, right now, their top priority. But if a writer cannot clarify what that need is, what that driving force is, then they have too much going on in the story, too many things pulling the character’s “want” in different directions–and to change metaphors here a moment–makes for a very muddy story, in any genre, literary or commercial. Needs and wants can change over the years, but there’s a pattern to that change, in that one primary need gets replaced by the next primary need. A character may not even realize it’s happening, may not recognize what their need is, but the writer must always know and guide the reader through that maze with a sure hand. It’s hard to guide a reader through muck and mud of many needs sloshing together and hope they come out the other end. Just think of trying to cross a vast muddy field–too much trouble, too much exhaustion just trying to pull one foot out of the mire. Build a path, keep a clear need/obstacle throughline.
So how about some of your favorite phrases that illustrate a writing principle? Or something as a reader that you’re aware of? (Or discuss the above.)
© 2008 – 2009, Toni McGee Causey. All rights reserved.
Toni McGee Causey lives in Baton Rouge, LA, and is the best-selling author of the BOBBIE FAYE trilogy. She has contributed a critically acclaimed short story to the KILLER YEAR: STORIES TO DIE FOR anthology edited by Lee Child and an essay in DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT MEANS TO MISS NEW ORLEANS. Additionally, she recently produced an indie film, LA 308. She and her husband, Carl, are licensed general contractors and, in order to support her writing addiction, they run their own company, specializing in civil construction.
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Toni, I love Steven Axelrod’s saying (which he attributes elsewhere but I am too lazy to go look it up.) The phrase goes something like, “If you want more success, double your failure rate.”
I so believe in that for publishing. We simply cannot predict what will catch public interest and what won’t. All we can do is write the projects we love. Keep our heads down and keep working on our stories. Especially in the dark times we’re in now.
If we want to succeed, we must be willing to risk failure. So put yourself out there!
by Jennifer Lyon December 4th, 2008 at 8:32 amToni,
by Debra Webb December 4th, 2008 at 9:01 amWhat an excellent post. I love it when I learn something new or just something that helps me to understand something I do instinctively in my writing. Girl, you should be teaching at your nearest university!
Thanks, Jennifer — that’s a cool phrase from Steve Axlerod… glad you included it.
Thanks, Debra…
by toni mcgee causey December 4th, 2008 at 12:06 pmI loved the ‘too many cats’ quote. I so got it when you explained it. I read some books that just heap on descriptive attributes to make a character ‘seem real’, but it goes too far and makes them a caricature instead of a character.
by Amanda December 4th, 2008 at 3:22 pmWhat a fantastic blog Toni! (Sorry I’m late to the party, I’m rushing to finish my book . . . . )
I had a problem you allude to here. It’s the backing my character into a corner.
I have a character who keeps dying on me. This has been the problem with this book. I keep trying to resurrect this character because I have a scene envisioned for later in the book (something that can’t be done earlier) between this character and my heroine. I love this scene (as I said it outloud in the car) and see the emotion and power of these scene. But then the character DIED! So I cut that scene and wrote in another direction . . . and he still died. I got so frustrated, until I realized (yesterday) that there is no purpose to him staying alive and, in fact, it would be artificial because it would only be to reveal something to the heroine.
Now, I’m not sure how my heroine is going to find out this information that dies with this character, but he’s died four different ways, and I think he’s meant to be dead.
My favorite phrase? Hmm, not sure. I use the phrase “TSTL” (Too Stupid To Live) to denote asinine things a character does, specifically heroines, that make me not like the book.
One of my favorite phrases is from the Hero’s Journey. “Road of Trials.” It’s Campbell’s original label, not Vogler’s which is something longer and doesn’t illustrate the purpose of the point immediate after the hero is committed to the journey. This is also one of my sticking points when I’m writing (beginning of the second act) because sometimes I don’t that turning point clearly.
What’s so important here is that these are TRIALS. We need to test our hero through obstacles (as you mention), some of which he wins, some which he fails, as he moves toward the death and resurrection and ultimately the climax of the story. The trials are what prove your hero is worthy of achieving his goal, even if you doubt he can achieve it.
by Allison Brennan December 5th, 2008 at 12:10 amI like Allison’s mention that a hero must fail as well as succeed. Maybe that’s why these uber-alpha heroes don’t resonate with me. I need to see how they react when things don’t go their way.
I don’t have any nifty phrases to share — maybe it’s because I don’t read enough ‘craft’ books. I got into writing because it was ‘fun’ and I’ve learned a lot through trial and error … hmmm.. is that why I like my heroes to fail, or at least make errors?
by Terry Odell December 5th, 2008 at 2:54 pmIf I hear “backstory dump” one more time I’ll scream. It’s used way too frequently by rookie contest judges to make themselves sound like they know what they are doing. And most wouldn’t know passive voice if it bit them in the a$$, but they sure circle every instance of the verb “to be” on your entry and knock off points.
I love the principles you gave, but when did writing get to be so complicated?
by Vanessa December 5th, 2008 at 4:41 pmThere’s a book called Black Swan where Jenny Crusie probably got the concept [I haven't read her blog]. The book’s been out a few years now and is all about improbability. Very, very interesting and thought-provoking. It’s always nteresting to see and think about the concept in a new way.
by Misa December 9th, 2008 at 9:27 am[...] Too Many Cats [...]
by Interesting Post Round Up | Murder & Magnolias December 10th, 2008 at 7:18 am