L Brooks: 6 Competencies Workshop

Willamette Writers: Larry Brooks  (Afternoon Session)
(October 1, 2011)


Aside: [e-mail]
         Authorhouse -Gloria

November: Robert Ariani (How to Write the Breakout Novel) ((Similar to Donald Maas)

Larry Brooks:
5 Thrillers.
Amazon top e-book.
www.storyfix.com
His new book: Search for Story
Book: “Story Engineering: Mastering the Six Core Competencies of Successful Writing”.

HIs workshops: he describes them as mildly disturbing.
His objective: He believes every workshop should be life-changing. (eg. getting published, writing a bestseller).


Question #1: Assumption – Everyone here wants to be a professional author. (He will remind us of that throughout his lecture).

The difference between those who get published and those who don’t:
         PGA golfing example: We all want to be on PGA Tour. Odds of publishing a novel  same as that of making a living on the PGA Tour. Setting the bar: Where it really is set:
                   We all come from somewhere. He was a minor league pitcher for 5 years
It isn’t as much about talent as it is about honing the craft.
         How many manuscripts become level of being published.
Comparisons: Can’t say one writer is better than another – instead, one writer does the job better than the other.



START NEW HERE

Contexts: like different religions. Context of writing dictates how and what we write.
         Belief system.
         Create characters with your own context.
         Eg. Some antagonists think they’re right, think they’re good (from their context).

3 Steps:
1)          What you are
2)          What tools are you using?
3)          What does your story do?
Suddenly reading is different. You see it in a whole new way.

Don’t yield to doing it your own way.

Four elements. Concept, Theme, Characterization and Structure


Concept: Thing that makes or breaks a novel. (WHAT IF of story)
Heart: What compelling thing separates yours from others.
Voice:          
1)          Word Choices
2)          Style
3)          Personality of writer
4)          Instinctive – can be better or worse
Theme: (can be neutral)


Story starts with all 5 buckets (core competencies) except voice.
         Most come from concept, characterization, theme, etc,
                   Never have a book until all of the four elemental buckets are filled.

Aside: Fatal mistake  Writers get 1 or 2 of the buckets great:
         Mistake: Starting to write with them. He says we should fill all four of the buckets before starting to write.

Q: Which bucket should you start with?
A:          Start with concept. Most powerful and most important tool to give concept.
1)          Characters and theme come from concept.
Don’t want : This happens and then this happens, etc. (linear): Need something to wrap around.
A story is a “what if” question: (What if versus So what?) – Has to be compelling
         What are the consequences of “what if”?
Can use to outline and organize a story. As part of the outline process.
Want concept fresh and compelling to others. What doors will it open?
Very nature of process – draws other buckets from: (eg, that’s where characterization comes from.
                   Some of genius is in the deployment


Start:
         Four elements: Concept, Theme, Characterization and Structure. Start with one to fill all the others.
         What makes it happen?
1)          Getting all six good entry level
2)          One of the elements has to be brilliant
Acid Test: Which of his buckets will an agent read and say – “Wow, never seen that before”.
a.          One of the buckets needs to explode.
b.          For a genre: Define home-run bucket.
3)          Once starting point arrives: fill in rest of buckets.
a.          Want highly original.
b.          Or new spin of an original idea.

Theme: Best handled by writer and as a starter if you start with theme (???)
         Fate gives you your first ideal bucket. Other buckets need hard work.

Character: Is hardest for him. But also the most obvious.
         Character without conflict needs a lot of work.
1)          Character needs an inner conflict
2)          Character needs external conflicts
3)          Create social belief systems for characters
4)          Have to have a character arc
5)          Never rescue your heroes.
a.          Hero: primary architect of solution in book.
i.          Essence of classic story – hero causes ending.

3 dimensions of character:
1)          Character in terms of what their character is as a human being
2)          Who they really are, what we think.
3)          Face we put on to the world: our behaviors and our actions

Author can show inner characters
Often 3D chars will have little quirks and/or tweaks of characterization
a.          Sometimes writers make mistake of making their whole character based on quirks
Inner stuff that makes outward sense of what character does





Flat 1D characters: We want our readers to see chars as multi-dimensional. All this great for character arc.

All of 5 things above go into character bucket.


Aside: Critique groups:
         Won’t see some of your mistakes until after it’s published.

Backstory: Everything in hero’s life before where hero is at at the beginning of the novel. (Inner demons).
         Tricky: Your story is not about the backstory.
         Sometimes antagonist should have backstory too.
         The bottom 90% of the iceberg.
         Flashback? – Usually doesn’t work.
                   Better to weave it into the story.




Circle with 6 arrows:

Concept, characterization, structure, voice, scenes and theme: All six of these point into center of circle of the six  buckets.




Structure:
         Biggest can of worms: 
         Answers: Who, what, when, where, etc. – And in what order.
                   How do you know what to write in order?

Five Key Scenes:
1)          Opening
2)          First Plot Point
3)          Mid-point
4)          2nd Plot Point
5)          Ending

Pinch Points:
1)          Plot Point 1
2)          Plot Point 2

Pinch Points: connect to antagonists forces. Bring antagonist forth and show him to the character and the reader.

Plot points 1 and 2 and the mid-point are all plot twists.
Together: 7 scenes out of approximately 60
Can have characters do things unrelated just to introduce other characters.
Scenes can be bridges.



Part I: 0% - 0 Pages to 25%-100pages:
         Start with Opening
Setup – Characters an orphan.
         Before Plot Point 1:
                   List of 15 scenes:
                             Foreshadow character’s inner demons
                             Want reader empathy for protagonist
                             By 25% reader should have vicarious experience with heroes

Part 2: 25%-100 Pages  50% - (200 pages):
         Response – Wanderer: reply/response to Part 1
                   Wandering: New problems can’t be solved with old ways
Respond with old tapes.
Failure and frustration as a person
         Go to 1st Plot Point (25% )
         1ST Plot point: at 25% (100 pages) through. ((or 20-25%))
                   Most important point in the story.
                   Where everything is set up for.’
                   Where real story starts.
                   Have fully developed antagonist
                   Hero has goals
                             Has stakes.
         

         
Part 3: 50%-  200 Pages to 75% -300 Pages
         The Attack: The Warrior
         Midpoint: (50%)
                   Plot Twist: Introduction of New Information
                   Protagonist still doesn’t know anymore than before.
                   Author pulls curtain to let reader see bad guys but character might or might not          see them.
         Proactive, not Reactive – Warrior
         Dramatic: Good guys versus bad guys – both grow, change and adapt



Part 4: 75% page 300 to100% - 400Pages - End
         Lull where hopes are lost:
Leads to 2nd Plot Point: 75% of way through:
                   Everything new has to be added before this.


100% - Resolution: Martyism:
         Hero gives up something to resolve plot. (Eg. save heroine?)          


Part I:
         Backstory, Character, Character’s world-view, want reader to root for hero at plot point 1
                   Mission: Reader knows and cares about the hero by PP1.
         Set up antagonist for Part II.
                   Introduce antagonist by PP1.
                             If introduced too early, reader may not be emotionally invested in protagonist
                             If too late, reader misses stuff.

Endings:
         Reader Satisfaction: Reader satiated and fulfilled. Ending hero-driven.
                   Beyond that, only author knows what goes here. Author decides the ending.
         Some stories end at 400 pages (100%). Some end a little bit earlier.  Gives characters a chance
                   to celebrate.
         Good to optimize character satisfaction.




Subplots: A different story parallel to the main story.
         Somewhere there’s a solution to the subplot too.
                   Try not to have subplots that don’t have solutions.


Subtext: Draw context in story that influences and affects story.
         (eg. blacks in the back of the bus, class warfare in the Titanic).
                   Subtext just is, doesn’t need solving.


Voice:  - Opportunity and a risk.
         Safety zone: Make writing clear and effective.
         Risk: Voice hurts story.
                   Doesn’t recommend using present tense.
                   Doesn’t recommend 2nd person.


Scene Execution: One of the most critical parts:
         Scenes: Microcosm
                   Every scene needs to have a mission. (mission-driven scenes). Every scene contributes something to the story.
                   Pacing: Combination of structure and scene exposition.
                             Change direction often, and increase and decrease pace.


Don’t need to tell backstory of peripheral characters.
         Be tight-fisted with attention – place it on best characters


We will now see in movies and books all this stuff about structure, buckets, etc, where we never saw it before.  It’s been happening all this time only we didn’t know it. Now we’ll notice all this in books and movies.

Aside: We can download scripts and movies for free (.pdf versions).


Aside: Software  scribner, writer’s café, mindmap